Fruitflies

[Raindog]

Okay, as of tonight I'm officially done with feeding crickets to the tiny ones. Combining the mortality rate with the amount of escapee's has me pulling my hair out. I have on order a "colony" of fruitflies, should be in tuesday.

 

[averagebehr]

You could always use maggots when they reach a nice size from the fruit flies or even use orb spiders dead as baby food. The actual time between metamorphisis was way to long for me to keep the flies viable with the time of premolt added to when the t'ds fed on them.

 

[Professor T]

Okay, as of tonight I'm officially done with feeding crickets to the tiny ones. Combining the mortality rate with the amount of escapee's has me pulling my hair out. I have on order a "colony" of fruitflies, should be in tuesday.

I hate fruitflies, and they might not be as nutritious as pinheads. I transfer pinhead into sling vials over the bathroom sink with the drain closed. Escapees are easily recaptured. I find dead pinheads are eaten very well by the slings.

As the slings get larger, small crickets with legs removed or medium criskets with heads crushed work pretty well too.

Fruitflies, even the wingless ones, I think are harder to control than pinheads. Good luck!

 

[sanguinarian]

I had a fruit fly colony. It was not fun. They might have been flightless, but they weren't hopless. The little buggars can move. Maybe a search could lead to an easy way to dispense the things. I ended up giving cricket legs to my babes.

 

[MeteoRa]

maybe this might help...i'm not sure for you but...
just take a look....

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=31703

 

[MilkmanWes]

Of all the types of larva or mealworm feeders what is the smallest? Is it small enough for a sling? Seems they are much easier to wrangle than a cricket or even fruit fly.

 

[Professor T]

Of all the types of larva or mealworm feeders what is the smallest? Is it small enough for a sling? Seems they are much easier to wrangle than a cricket or even fruit fly.

If your container size is small enough, slings don't have a problem wrangling pinheads or fruitflies.

I've hear of people having success slicing mealworms with a razor into sections and feeding those to slings. Some have similar success slicing adult crickets as sling food.

 

[Immortal_sin]

we just slice the mealworms up and feed them in pieces....
mealworm babies are so tiny, it's really difficult to find them in the oat bran, they are the same color. I gave up on both pinheads and fruitflies long ago, after hundreds of escapes. Now, it's lobster roach nymphs, and mealworms only around here.

 

[MilkmanWes]

Was referring to me wrangling them. catching a tiny cricket without killing it, holding that while opening the lid and not letting the sling out... takes more hands than I have.

If your container size is small enough, slings don't have a problem wrangling pinheads or fruitflies.

I've hear of people having success slicing mealworms with a razor into sections and feeding those to slings. Some have similar success slicing adult crickets as sling food.

 

[bman]

The problem with fruit flies is that they are low in certain amino acids the slings need. If they feed to much a fruit flies alone, they have trouble molting and grow deformed legs. I have had great success with the legs off of large crickets. Next time you are feeding a large T, rip a few of the legs off the crickets before hand, and use them for your slings.