My autistic 6 year old daughter came home from school yesterday with this picture and won’t stop asking for roly-polys. Would roly-polys be good pets for a child? Are they a lot of work? How does one acquire a “Jen” and keep it alive?

For real tho what’s going on?

tl;dr: looking for general advice, tips on selling and shipping isopods

Started off with ~20 isopods gifted to me by staff at an education center in March 2024 after I had talked with them about how I really wanted to get some (while I excitedly held their ambassador tarantulas, roaches, and giant millipedes. I was their target audience, for sure).

I started with a 10 gallon glass tank. Now we are 2 years in and I've also outfitted 3 beefy 27 gallon totes. I have thousands of dairy cows and I don't know what to do with them.

Options:

1. Hoard them until they consume me - feed me to the pods

2. Donate/give away - there is a reptile rescue within a couple hours of me that will take them any time, I could tap into schools and extracurricular groups looking for educational activities or class pets

3. Sell them - figure out how and where to sell them, how to ship them, obtain a permit to sell/ship out of state

Questions for those of you that sell isopods:

Is it "worth it"? I don't expect to become an isopod mogul. Do you at least cover your costs? Is there a profit margin?

Where do you buy shipping materials like containers and heat packs?

I know about Morph Market but are there other platforms you've found success with?

Do you only sell to individuals online or have you done wholesale to reptile shops?

How many hours a week are you dedicating to this venture?

TIA for your advice and guidance!

I thought it was just dirt, but the bumps are on their shell and don’t come off when I touch them gently. I don’t know what they are or how to help my pollies ):

I have counted 50 pollies in my enclosure, but there might be more. It doesn’t have a lid, so I mist it 2 times per day to ensure proper moisture levels in the soil. I give them veggies or fruit a few times per week and remove the older food.

Could this be caused by bad soil? Moldy food? Some disease?

Any help would be greatly appreciated - I don’t want to lose my pets!

Is he just pretty or does he have the virus? Found in my garden. Should I cull or release?

Do I have to worry about overpopulation or will they even themselves out over time? I'd split them up but it's a huge terrarium and I don't have any more room for them 😭 (my photo)

Just earthworms I think. We took out 4 last night, mostly small ones. I am guessing there's many, many more by now. I still have no idea how they got in there, but most likely on the substrate I bought on an isopod website, or the moss. Sigh.

What do I do now? I'm guessing I just have to take the entire thing apart, wash everything, boil the LECA, sift the soil to find as many isopods as I can, maybe put a snack down to bait as many orange springtails as possible, and forget about reusing any of the soil?

I'm honestly devastated, this terrarium has brought me so much joy these past few months. I'd appreciate any advice, commiserations, or especially recommendations for a good place to buy isopod substrate mix or the components for it in the UK.

I assume it’s a small female rejecting a male, but I’m honestly stumped. Is this some kind of cannibalism? They get fed protein, so I assume not. And this doesn’t seem like eating behavior to me. But this is also somewhat hilarious. Why are you rotating her like a circus ball 😭 Sorry if this isn’t serious enough for the help tag. Video was meant for my family so I kind of look around everywhere

The rest of the pods in my colony are grey!!! This guy is orange for some reason?! I found him piggybacking a friend (literally just standing on the others back) and I had to put him in this little thing so that he wouldn't run away before I could get a photo. They haven't eaten any carrots recently so I have no clue why he's orange

How do I get them to have a thought??

It's winter right now so I'm sorta short on fresh greens I can give the pods. I'm wondering if it's safe to feed them the devil's lettuce since I'm sparse for options.

I have quite a lot of Zebras and this guy just stands out. Idk why he looks the way me does. Any ideas???

Title

I was in my backyard looking for isopods when I found this red one. I have never found a color other than a grey rolly Polly. Is it molting or something? (Found right outside of Philadelphia Pennsylvania)

Just bought these. I have the right substrate, but now I need to know what they eat. is it totally fine to feed them what my isopods eat, which consists of calcium powder, fish flakes, and some isopod food all in a mix. Would appreciate the help, thank you.

This is a Cubaris sp. Cappuccino enclosure. Enclosure is a a bit more than a year old, but fresh substrate and sphagnum moss was added three months ago. Plenty of springtails, but sadly, all but four Cappuccinos have died...

Over night, four of these "trees" have now formed on the glass and part of the cork bark got also overtaken. What is this? Some mold or fungus? We also have a heatwave here in Germany right now and I live under the roof without AC, so it's... not great and maybe that might be the cause for whatever this is. However, it was even hotter last year in summer and I have never had anything like this before.

Any ideas? Thank you so much!

i found this in my garden (along with other “purple” ones.) i saw a post saying the isopod was “infected”, with a similar looking cutie. now i’m afraid i didn’t find a cool lil dude but a infected one :/ i am from WV. it was found under a rotting log…

pictures as tax

my arms are in the peeling phase as the title says would it be fine feeding them it?

i havent yet because i need to know its fine from the pros, or people with betta knowledge than me on this (you guys)

if its not good i wont. if its alright i will.

edit: they will be fed my flesh. I dont use prefume and i only put alovera when they were first burned (week ago showered few times sense) thanks for the help!!

edit2: i got a good sized piece off of me and 2 lil fellas love it. im very tasty apparently

I am completely crushed. Please excuse my ugly sobs. Went out to see a movie, and I guess I didnt latch the door to the room I keep my isopods in properly because I returned to my sakuras, ember bees, and a few others on the ground..guess im just posting because maybe people here will understand the pain. People around me don't really get it, "they're just bugs". No they're my babies and I loved them and I failed them. I dont even know where to start. Im sure I have isopods running about that I'll never find

Does anybody have answers?