What’s a good way to collect flies/moths to feed my inverts??

AmphibianAddict

Arachnopeon
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Messages
45
So, the staple food for my small inverts and spiders are flies and they’re kinda hard to catch, do y’all have any simpler ways to catch them other than just grabbing them?
 

WildSpider

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jul 14, 2018
Messages
465
I have been using a large butterfly net to catch the flies around my place but today I'm planning on starting a fly culture (I started a small culture already but today I'm planning on making a much larger one). I'm hoping to just use the different kinds of flies that are around my place already to start this culture. Not only should this make feeding easier I think but it should hopefully boost the numbers up a little again. I'm running out of flies and I don't seem to be slowing down on catching more inverts :p.

Another option of course is to go to the pet store and buy some feeders there. You could also start a culture with the feeders you buy.

Edit:
Another great way to catch flies is to make a homemade fly trap and use your own bait. By scanning them, I believe these are the fly trap I've made before (with successful results):
Baits I had luck with were cat food, fermented grain water, animal fat, etc.. I didn't try to feed these flies to spiders but I'm guessing you could get them back out by putting the trap in a butterfly net, reaching in (while keeping the net snug around your arm), and cutting the top off.
 
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pandabacon

Arachnosquire
Joined
Oct 8, 2018
Messages
57
I just use a cup and a piece of heavy paper. I guess it depends on how many inverts you have to feed but my backyard is swarming with blue bottles and house flies so I just cup 2 or 3 every other day to feed my jumpers. It's pretty easy if you have a place where a lot are landing. Once you have one cupped slide the paper under and then put the whole thing in the freezer for 4 minutes. The fly will fall asleep for around 3 minutes and you can cut it's wings and transfer it wherever you need before it wakes up.
 

WildSpider

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jul 14, 2018
Messages
465
It's pretty easy if you have a place where a lot are landing.
Good points :). One place flies like to land a lot of times is on the side of a building (like your house) in the sunshine in the evening when the sun is going down.
 
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Joined
Jun 22, 2016
Messages
393
I go into flowerbeds and pluck unsuspecting flies and ants off the flowers with a pair of tweezers, or I swipe them with my large butterfly net, and I can actually catch a lot by keeping caught flies in the excess of the net, then by centrifugal force, I swipe more off plants and dog crap without loosing any. I kind of do a little figure eight swipe so the excess folds over the net circle before I grab it. It's fun catching flies...
 

SonsofArachne

Arachnoangel
Joined
Dec 10, 2017
Messages
961
If you have a bait and tackle (fishing) store nearby you can buy blow fly maggots for a couple of bucks. I've never intentionally turned them into flies (I feed them to smaller centipedes and scorpions) but some get lost in the substrate and pupate into adults. I imagine if you put some in a bigger size deli cup with moist sub and maybe some wet cat/dog food you would get a lot of flies.
 
Joined
Jun 22, 2016
Messages
393
If you have a bait and tackle (fishing) store nearby you can buy blow fly maggots for a couple of bucks. I've never intentionally turned them into flies (I feed them to smaller centipedes and scorpions) but some get lost in the substrate and pupate into adults. I imagine if you put some in a bigger size deli cup with moist sub and maybe some wet cat/dog food you would get a lot of flies.
Those are the best. Really juicy when they are well fed. Excellent suggestion friend. Wax worm moths work too, but they are a little slippery because of their wing scales. There really is no good substitute for a wild caught flesh fly though. :) Deer flies are great too. Most of the flies related to horseflies are chuck full of nutrients for spiders. T's love huge pond caught dragonflies. Personally, I find those big black field cricket females keep most of my spiders well satiated for weeks sometimes, depending on the size of the spider and it's metabolic rate. Orb weavers will eat just about anything that gets caught in their webs, but they are pretty vulnerable to wasps due to their 2 dimensional webs. Widows on the other hand, are by far the least picky when it comes to food. Very opportunistic when hungry. I've seen many of my small 4th instars take on crickets 3 times as big and probably 20 times heavier. Just depends on the species you have, so my advice to you is to experiment with everything.
 

SonsofArachne

Arachnoangel
Joined
Dec 10, 2017
Messages
961
Those are the best. Really juicy when they are well fed. Excellent suggestion friend. Wax worm moths work too, but they are a little slippery because of their wing scales. There really is no good substitute for a wild caught flesh fly though. :) Deer flies are great too. Most of the flies related to horseflies are chuck full of nutrients for spiders. T's love huge pond caught dragonflies. Personally, I find those big black field cricket females keep most of my spiders well satiated for weeks sometimes, depending on the size of the spider and it's metabolic rate. Orb weavers will eat just about anything that gets caught in their webs, but they are pretty vulnerable to wasps due to their 2 dimensional webs. Widows on the other hand, are by far the least picky when it comes to food. Very opportunistic when hungry. I've seen many of my small 4th instars take on crickets 3 times as big and probably 20 times heavier. Just depends on the species you have, so my advice to you is to experiment with everything.
My worry with wild caught feeders is pesticides, of which there is way too much floating around out there.
 
Joined
Jun 22, 2016
Messages
393
My worry with wild caught feeders is pesticides, of which there is way too much floating around out there.
Fortunately where I live, pesticides are not used very often. You do have a point though. You need to be very choosy on what you feed your babies, but in the span that I have been feeding spiders, and catching them, I have had no encounters where the food poisoned my spider through eating it. I have however, experienced what nematodes can do to a T, so now I prefer to do a little health check on the prey items before I feed them to my babies. Plump bellies and spry activity are good signs to look for. Avoid any slow moving insects that are easy to catch. True's seem to be pretty tolerant to wild caught feeders. Mygalies, not so much.
 

Bob Lee

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 10, 2018
Messages
498
Use soap water, just put it somewhere in your house or outside and it will catch you huge amounts of bugs everyday...
 

galeogirl

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 15, 2002
Messages
1,198
It's easy to start a flour moth culture. Leave some flour or meal open in a dark space during the warmer months. When you see moths or webbing, put it all into a container. If the adults have mated, you'll see larval tunnels in the flour after a few weeks. I keep mine in a small critter keeper and made a nylon sleeve from a pair of pantyhose that I rubberbanded over the top. Twist it shut and the adults can't get out but if you untwist it you can reach in to catch the adults, which are really clumsy and slow, or you can use a small sieve to scoop out the larvae, which are tiny, soft-bodied feeders for really small animals.
 
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