Are Clean-up Crews a Waste?

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CUCs are largely a waste of time and money —

I think it will come as something of a shock for some to learn that the whole “Clean-up Crew” thing is largely a figment of our imaginations. The Crew is generally presented as helpful little beasts that busy themselves “cleaning” our vivariums. They do this, as the story goes, by eating up all the animal waste and fungus – removing everything nasty from our vivs and leaving a disease free and healthy environment in their wake.

The truth is isopods and springtails provide nothing that is beneficial to a bioactive or naturalistic vivarium. First, if you have fungus your vivarium is simply too wet. This is true whether you are keeping dart frogs or water dragons or any other species. The simple remedy is to stop watering so much and increase ventilation. If you are watering and closing down ventilation in order to increase humidity then most likely your design is wrong. (See: The Humidity Mystery).

Second, in the experiments Ive done in typical vivarium conditions, springtails simply had no impact on the fungus that I purposely grew. In fact the control container had less fungus growing than the container with the healthy springtail population. So hopefully we can stop with this unnecessary complication to our enclosures.

Its often said that isopods will help decompose animal waste thereby reducing disease and just generally keeping things tidy and clean. I think this idea appeals to keepers who are just uncomfortable with the idea of accumulating “toxic” wastes in their vivarium. But the discomfort is unfounded.

I first started questioning the idea of isopods in vivaria when dealing with our flock of chickens. They would free range all day and return to their coop at night to poop up a storm. And a couple dozen chickens can produce a surprising amount of poop! Their feces fell from their perches to the deep bedding of wood shavings and straw. I read that back in the days that our farm was built the farmers would allow the waste to build up thru the summer and by fall the decomposing waste would actually provide heat to help keep the chickens warm on cold winter nights.

When winter came I turned the foot deep shaving in the coop and found the lower levels had become a rich humus. No smell was present and it was indeed warm – steam rose in a cloud above the overturned substrate. In the spring the coop was cleaned out and loads of rich compost were wheeled down to the garden.

What I was leaning of course is that bacteria are incredible decomposers. This was further established when I was told that local hog farmers are now composting their dead hogs – all 350 pounds of them – in nothing but piles of damp sawdust. Research showed that this simple process depending totally on bacteria would decompose these massive carcasses complete, teeth, bone and all, in a matter of two months under good conditions – conditions that are exactly what we have in our vivariums – warm and slightly moist.

I realized that if bacteria could do all this it could certainly handle our pet’s waste. And my experiments proved it could indeed. In fact side-be-side comparisons showed that the addition of a variety of isopods did not spend the decomposition of animal waste at all – even with a very robust population of the bugs in ideal conditions.

So instead of adding a bunch of bugs that evidence indicated could not help, I tried three different approaches to waste management. I started by filling each of the cages with deep potting mix substrate (See: The Great Substrate Debate). In one cage that housed arboreal snakes I used a one gallon pump sprayer to spray the feces off the plants and cage walls maybe once a week. In a cage housing terrestrial Colubrids I used a big metal spoon to flip the waste over into the potting mix substrate, and in another cage housing a terrestrial snake I didnt do anything at all with the waste.

What I found was that the animal waste didnt last long in any of the experimental cages. Even in the one where I did nothing with the waste, a layer of dead leaves on top of the potting mix substrate trapped the moist air rising from the slightly damp substrate creating a perfect environment for the bacteria to quickly break down the waste.

The arboreal cage too never needed even spot cleaning. The weekly spraying rinsed the waste into the substrate where it was quickly decomposed. I thought about all the times I read about how the big Colubrids I was keeping were supposed to smell so bad. My cages holding these big snakes smelled like the forest after a summer rain.

There have been a couple other aspects of the “Clean Up Crew” that some have touted as essential, or at least beneficial. Some have claimed they keep the substrate aerated by their burrowing. Others have said the bugs are an important supplemental hood source for their animals.

But if you use the right substrate, ie a good quality potting mix, you dont need additional aeration of the substrate. This is simply because potting mix has been designed specifically to allow air to penetrate it, unlike many other pet branded substrates. (See: What wrong with coconut husk substrate?) Since isopods live on or just below the surface, they dont do much aerating anyway. And because you are using the right substrate and learning how not to over water it, you wouldnt need them even if they did. (See: Managing Substrate Moisture)

The idea that the bugs could supplement feeding is worth examining too. I kiddingly liken this argument to new parents planting an apple tree in their backyard in case they forget to feed their children.

Of course if you put bugs in an insectivore’s cage the bugs will get eaten. But then what? You add more? Or you just let them limp along without the important supplemental food source? Obviously if we have pets its our job to make sure they are eating the quantity and quality of food needed to be healthy. If that means adding isopods occasionally then there is nothing wrong with that. Just so its understood the bugs are food, not cleaners.

Finally, if you simply enjoy bugs in your care then there is nothing wrong with keeping them as pets of sorts. As long as they dont bother your primary resident and as long as they are not acting as disease vectors. We dont want to spend time or money on things that dont add to the welfare of the lizard, frog or other herps we are keeping.

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Published by Joe

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