Freeze-Dried Garden Peas

The ingredient list on these runs to one line: garden peas. Nothing is added, nothing comes out except the water, and there are no binders, preservatives, colourings or fillers in the bag. That matters more for detritivores than it does for most animals, because isopods, millipedes and springtails are working through a diet of leaf litter and rotting wood, and richer or more complex foods tend to sit uneaten, draw in mites and go over before anything has finished with them. I buy these in and bag them here, and nothing else happens to them.

Freeze-drying pulls the water out at low temperature instead of cooking it off, which keeps the nutritional profile close to that of the fresh vegetable while leaving something that stores dry on a shelf. Fresh pea in a humid tub moulds inside a day; these sit out without turning, which is the practical gain. Peas run around 23% protein, which is high for a vegetable, and they bring useful fibre along with it.

Protein counts for more in a detritivore enclosure than the leaf-litter picture suggests, and where it runs short the animals find it in each other. Large Porcellio in particular will start on their own freshly moulted individuals before the new shell has hardened if there is nothing else going. Plant protein covers that gap without the spoilage that animal protein brings to a wet enclosure, so peas and dried silkworm pupae tend to get used on different days, not in place of one another.

Crush one or two to powder between fingertips and sprinkle the dust on the dry side of the enclosure. The fine particles give a colony more surface to graze and the response is usually quick. Left whole, a pea is light enough for an adult isopod to drag back under a piece of bark, and you will catch animals on their backs turning one as they eat through it. Either way they soften as they take up humidity from the enclosure, so nothing needs soaking first. Springtail cultures take the dust well, and roaches and millipedes take them crushed.

They are a supplement and not the foundation. Leaf litter is the foundation, and magnolia leaves are what I lay over most of our tubs because they hold their shape for months when damp. Offer peas once or twice a week in small amounts and pull anything still sitting there after two days, since overfeeding is what brings mites and fruit flies in. Keep the bag sealed in a cool dry cupboard. Leave it open in a steamy kitchen and you will be prising a solid block apart instead of shaking loose peas out. There is more in our guide to feeding freeze-dried fruit and vegetables, a wider look at what isopods eat, and the rest of the feeding range in our accessories collection.