A natural hollow cork bark tube, a ready-made tunnel and hide that's an excellent addition to any isopod, millipede, or cockroach enclosure. Cork is the bark of the cork oak, which naturally forms curved, tube-like sections, so each piece is a real slice of hollow bark rather than anything manufactured. Where a flat piece of cork makes a hide to shelter under, a tube gives your inverts an enclosed space to crawl through and tuck themselves inside, a more secure, den-like retreat that many species particularly favour.
Why a Cork Tube?
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Enclosed shelter: the hollow centre gives inverts a snug, secure space to gather, moult, and retreat into, which many species prefer over open hides
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Natural tunnel: isopods and millipedes will crawl through and explore it, adding interest and structure to the enclosure
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Climbing surface: the curved, textured bark gives good grip for climbing inside and out
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Holds humidity: the enclosed space traps a little extra moisture, creating a humid microclimate your inverts can retreat to
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Food source: as with all cork, your isopods will gradually nibble on it over time
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Naturalistic look: a tube of real cork bark looks great as a natural centrepiece in a display setup
How to Use
Lay the tube on the substrate surface as a tunnel for your inverts to pass through and shelter inside. Positioning it across the moisture gradient, so one end sits in the damper zone and the other in the drier area, gives your colony a choice of conditions within a single hide. You can also half-bury it for a more naturalistic burrow effect, or prop it against cork bark and other décor to build multi-level structures with chambers and crevices. Millipedes in particular take readily to tube hides, often resting inside them during the day.
Treating It Before Use
The advice on this page used to be to bake the tube at 200°C for thirty minutes, and to stay under 300°C. We have withdrawn it. Cork starts breaking down at about 180°C, so that oven setting already sat above the point where the bark is damaged. Dry material of this kind can catch light from roughly 250°C, and lower still if the heat stays on it long enough, which leaves 300°C as no margin at all.
No method of sterilising cork has ever been validated. Bark bought from a shop is low risk to start with, so if you want a precaution, give it a few days in the freezer instead. That is the usual answer to mites and their eggs, it leaves the bark intact, and there is nothing to stand and watch. Let the tube return to room temperature before it goes in.
Once it is in the enclosure, the question becomes when to swap it, and our article on changing the cork bark for isopods covers the signs to watch for, including a colony that quietly stops using a piece that still looks fine.
Please Note
As cork bark is a natural product, the size, shape, and curve of each tube will vary, and each piece is picked at random.
Size
Small: ideal for starter tubs, smaller enclosures, or as one of several hides in a larger setup. Browse our full accessories collection for flat cork bark, leaf litter, and the other components of a complete naturalistic setup, and our isopods and millipedes collections for the inverts these tubes are made for.
