In this video I build a terrarium for Firebrats. They're a less known species, but closely related to silverfish. They love hot temperatures and I've been told they require heat to breed. As far as I know they're one of the only thermophile insects native to the UK. Their love for hot temperatures often causes them to live as pests in bakeries and boiler rooms.

I am curious if the microclimate of the jar can provide them with enough heat to breed successfully. If they cannot breed due to the microclimate I have heard they can live for up to 2 years. This means that they'll possibly be able to breed seasonally during summer heatwaves instead. Now is too early to know for sure what will happen, but I've given it quite a bit of thought.

I also found a large Globular Springtail in this terrarium. I'm hopeful it's female and has already mated before finding it's way into this terrarium. It'd be really cool to have a colony of those in there.

I built this terrarium 2 weeks before adding the firebrats. I was hoping the plants would have time to grow a bit more, but a pesky slug had been eating all my cuttings! I scooped out the slug off camera, but as you can see many of the plants I planted were eaten. That slug especially liked the taste of the Mexican Stonecrop and ate all of them! The Golden Moss Stonecrop and Jade Necklace plants seemed to fair a lot better and survived. I'm looking forward to being able to witness this environment shift from bare soil to a lush and green terrarium.

I've never kept firebrats before. I'm hopeful they'll breed, but in the event they don't they'll make interesting pets either way. It'll be cool to see if I can get my own strain going!