HCA: Hermit Crab Association

would rollie pollies work if I didn't have any EE and just sand?

good question! i am curious to know that as well

I think you could put the rollie pollies in sand.

now all i have to do is figure out how to find pill bugs in central alberta (do they even live here..? i have nooo idea, and i used to pride myself on my mad entomology skills )

I think that they should be able to live on sand, but in that case you should definitely offer them something additional to eat and to hide in, like leaves, moss ect.

Caroline wrote:now all i have to do is figure out how to find pill bugs in central alberta (do they even live here..? i have nooo idea, and i used to pride myself on my mad entomology skills )

Somewhere damp and dark, I found most of mine in our brick pile. They LOVE under and in between rocks.

Rollie pollies really like moist and damp places, as mentioned above. Under decaying wood, branches, or tree stumps are also great places.

I usually find mine near a creek in the woods I have near my house.

yay! theres a creek right behind my parents' house (yes right through town, it IS alberta after all! ) it's a protected area, no spraying, no pesticides, tons of deadfall, ima gonna go harvesting today i think! with a large jar! fun outting for the kiddies! come here you little crustaceans....

i cant find any rp's in my backyard i might be going up to my step dads ranch and the pond just dried out there and its moist last time when the pond dried out i found tons of rollypollys

ugh all i got today on my outing was mosquito bites! and i found an impressive colony of ants, yet no pill bugs. or sow bugs, whichever variety we have here... the kids got lots of saskatoon berries though

You know, the last time I saw my niece, I mentioned the thing about collecting rollie pollies and putting them in her 'tat.

When I talked to my sister yesterday, she said that it had turned into a big mess!

She had found a ton of bugs (hopefully only RP's) and put them in the tat, and the dirt is all over her room!

I don't have the time to go looking, so I said I'd take some off their hands.

But I couldn't help but ever so quietly to myself when I heard about it.

:EDIT: I forgot to also say that she has a bunch of chiggers all over her body including the nether-regions

soooo i've been trying to find either a source for these critters online or in the wild, and no joy is to be had... i read somewhere that there is a kit or something you can buy? i checked out the worm guys but i don't think they ship internationally anyhow. where on earth do i get my hands on these critters??

I think you can get them from www.wormman.com .

sadly i see that they have none in stock
i checked out exoticpetshop.ca, but their site isn't quite up and running, and i'm unclear as to whether they have them available at the moment or not..

I plopped one in my tank after doing the deep clean...found it in our strawberries when I was gathering fresh food for the hermies. It dug right under the instant I placed it in the tank.

Do they mostly stay underground and out of sight? I'm afraid of my mom seeing them if I put too many in there...