Day 32

The mesocosm is still going well. The cricket is still alive, and seems to have grown a bit since the start of the experiment, and the plants are thriving. The ferns are growing new leaves, even though other parts of the fern are turning brown. I think my mesocosm will survive for quite long.

The cricket in the centre of the picture

New leaves starting to grow on the fern

Day 22

Today I realized my other cricket had died, because it had gotten stuck in a little piece of duct tape the was exposed to the inside of the mesocosm. Next time, I will have to make sure that the sticky part of the duct tape isn't exposed. However, my other cricket is alive, though I wish I had put in more crickets to see if maybe they could repopulate. I also found out which plants the cricket ate, which is shown in the picture below.  A few new plants are starting to grow, which is pretty exciting as it shows my mesocosm is thriving. Although a few leaves of one of the ferns is becoming brown, I'm not very worried, as the rest seems to be doing fine, and if the leaves start decomposing there will be more nutrients in the soil.

Cricket on the fern bottom center

The leaf being eaten by the cricket

Two small plants