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[Invisible Snake]

The top portion of my soil is fairly dry. I mix and spray down a couple times a week to mix in poop and other matter. Having a infared heat lamp also allows the substrate to dry enough to not cause scale rot but not too dry as to not kill the cleaner crew. I started with 2 small cultures of both and now I have more then I can count when i mix my substrate. Also my viv is set up to give them plenty of dry places to hide and hang out. Having a naturalistic viv is not impossible with garter you just need to work at it and be smart about it.

Hey where did you get your cultures?

[-MARWOLAETH-]

You can harvest wood lice from outside but you have to starve them for a while to clean out their guts to stop them from bringing nasties into you'r enclosure.

[pinkypink]

Hey where did you get your cultures?

A friend of mine breeds cultures one for dart frogs and such as food..but also for folks like us who use them as cleaner crews! Then you don't have to worry about bringing in the nasties from outside!

Here is a link to her website!

www.herpetologicalgirl.com

[kueluck]

Thought I would post the cage I made here. Did this all by myself, only help from TJ was getting it from deck to inside the house, then up on the stand, which I made also.
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[guidofatherof5]

Beautiful.
My only concern would be the light on the left side. Looks like the snakes would have access to the bulb. The chances of getting burned is high unless I'm missing something.

[Selkielass]

My tank with isopods and millipedes was stocked out of my own mulch bin, wood pile and flower garden.
Bugs have done beautifully, except for one week when I allowed things to dry out too much.

I do spot clean and change old chewed up or poopy fruit and oak leaves out for fresh, but weeks I've been busy and missed cleaning didn't get smelly.

Isopods like it wetter than i'm comfortable keeping the garters so I don't have the population it sounds like you have, but they still are keeping things tidy. Local moss and ground ivy didn't survive long, but the freckle plant from Lowers is holding its own.

Im watching closely for skin problems- none have shown up so far. Cranky and Trax spend a *lot* of time hanging out up on top of their reeds and driftwood, happy and relaxed.

[kueluck]

The bulb fixture is in "test" mode. I have it on long enough to see how hot this gets, it's a 25 watt incandesent blub. The plan is to get a piece of red colored glass then secure it to the alumnum reflecter inside.

Beautiful.
My only concern would be the light on the left side. Looks like the snakes would have access to the bulb. The chances of getting burned is high unless I'm missing something.

[guidofatherof5]

I would still be concerned about its surface temp.
It wouldn't take much for a snake to burn its tongue.

[Light of Dae]

Nothing special about this tank set up. It's simple, I can feed the babies n not worry about them eating any substrate, which is "Yesterdays News Cat Paper Pellet Litter" Awesome no dust stuff with little bit of "Carefresh ProEarth Crinkle Cut Colored Paper" to borrow through, add color and as ground cover hides.

This is home to four female babies.
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[guidofatherof5]

Looks good.