» Landscaping a Terrarium Below you `ll find some details on how I landscape/ decorate a terrarium for anoles #1 A panel of styropor is placed under the terrarium, serving as insulation. The background consists of a panel of dark cork. The first 10-15 cm from the bottom are not covered. This prevents the corkplate from rotting. The sidepanels are painted white (outside, white varnish). All technical devices are placed outside of the terrarium.	#2 Directly on the glass a 3 cm thick layer of clay pellets is placed. This base layer serves as drainage.
#3 On top of the clay pellets a substrate divider like a sheet of filterscreen (aquarium) is placed. This prevents the substrate from mixing with the pellets.	#4 As the final layer the substrate is added. The substrate layer is 10 cm tick at the back of the terrarium gradually sloping to 2-3 cm at the front.
#5 Potted plants and various branches are placed. The pots are buried in the substrate layer (they actually stand on the filterscreen). One horizontal branch is placed near the sunspot.	#6 The endresult. Within a few weeks the plants start to grow and the terrarium soon looks like a piece of jungle.

» Modified freezer for breeding insects For breeding housecrickets I have modified an old freezer. These are well insulated and you can get them for free almost anywere. the modified fridge, with 3 shelves for the breeding boxes I first removed the engine and wiring. Next I made ventilation slits in the door (at the bottom) and in the backpanel (top). Ventilation is very important, if the freezer is not well ventilated it will soon become infested with mites! The opening of the ventilationslits can be adjusted. In the freezer I made 3 shelves, supporting the breedingboxes. ventilation slit in the front door

ventilation slit at the back(top) The 'freezer'is heated using 2 light bulbs. One is placed in the top of the freezer, the other one near the bottom. The light bulbs are controlled by a thermostate, set to 27 &Degr; C. The lightbulb, thermostate and a small PC fan are fixed to a piece of plywood and placed at the bottom of the freezer. The PC fan runs day and night. The aircirculation makes sure that the warm air (heated by the lightbulb) is equallly distributed through the freezer. lightbulb, thermostate and PC fan for 'climate control' the red arrrow indicates the direction of the air flow