fruit fly cultures..

[timberwolf]

ok, I bought some fruit fly cultures for my pygmy chams as a change from the usual micro crickets, not quite sure what I expected. The tubs arrived with a mesh top and the little maggotsmunching away, the whole thing smelling of rotten fruit.. fair enough, so far so good. (shudders at the maggots)

Now.. do I have to keep the cultures warm? cold? in the dark? watered? in a bigger jar? help me guys? please? I know what I'm doing with rodents, but yeuch...

[ditta]

wejust keep ours at room temp and after a few days violla, a house full of fruit fly

we usually snip a hole in mesh and put the whole pot in the viv, then when they emerge as flies they go where they should and not in my cup of tea

[timberwolf]

Originally Posted by ditta

wejust keep ours at room temp and after a few days violla, a house full of fruit fly

we usually snip a hole in mesh and put the whole pot in the viv, then when they emerge as flies they go where they should and not in my cup of tea

LOL!! thanks for that Ditta!.. I shall so look forward to them hatching everywhere...

[Lynne]

the stuff in the bottom of my fruit fly tub is moving, and there are tiny wee maggots. are these the fruit flies, or do i need to bin the culture? they are dor my wee orchid mantis. and can you tell me how to get them from thier tub into the orchids without half of them getting away?????

[Gaz1987]

The maggots wil,l turn into flies just ive them time, keep at room temp.

As for transferring put alittle bit of calcium powder in a tub such as a pot noodle tub.

Use something like a small tea strainer or sive to put inside the tub and then knock the tub to knock flies into the strainer/sive then tap into the pot noodle pot.

Shake a little that way the flies do not crawl up and out of the tub.

You can then do the same again to get enough food for your animals.

Once you have enough flies you can then tap the flies out of the tub into the viv or into the strainer/sive and collect the remaining calcium powder with a second tub underneath then feed the flies.

Hope this helps

[Lynne]

thats a great help thankyou. most escaped while i was trying to get them into the orchids tub. i have a colony living under my bookcase!!!! lol

[Gaz1987]

Lol if you are planning on feeding them your animals regularly then it may pay you to culture them,

Get a larger tub get a stocking or something similar to put over the top and you can then make up a mix or use mashed up banana and put it in the tub leave over night then add around 100 flies.

Then leave for around a week or two, you will notice maggots which then turn into flies.

[Lynne]

its mainly for the wee orchid. he is so tiny. but how would they do for the larger mantids too. would they still eat them, as well as the usual food they get??

[Gaz1987]

I am not an expert with mantids but some adult mantids of certain species will take them but not very large mantids.

I believe sub adult orchids may still eat them.

[Lynne]

great. i will have to go buy more babies to eat them!!!! lol
thanks gaz.