Live food - Blue bottle flies

[Spider937372]

Not really directly a Tarantula question - as I have these blue bottle flies mainly for my jumping spider (although a young T might enjoy them as well...?).

Got some questions about hatching these out though, as I've been having problems.

I've put the main container with pupae in the fridge and get a couple out every now and then into a different container at room temperature to hatch.
The first one I did worked brilliantly, hatched in a few days and was a nice healthy fly. The 2nd however, was miserable and looked all messed up. It couldn't properly walk nor fly and even had the cocoon stuck on him (I helped him out).
Now I've got yet another one that only popped his head out of the cocoon and that's it; its stuck and most likely dead.

So I'm wondering if anybody has some experience and tips on how to hatch these pupae. Is there a certain substrate or otherwise some sort of environment to give them for greater success?
And if it's normal that a portion of them 'fail'?

Tried to google for a bit about this, but mostly end up on infestation advise...

Cheers

 

[galeogirl]

It sounds like they might need more humidity if they're having so much trouble emerging. I often put blue bottle pupae directly on the wet side substrate of the enclosure with my predator in it and that has worked well for me. You could try putting them on a little damp soil or adding a little piece of damp sponge to the hatching container.