Musca domestica..

[AneesasMuse]

..where do you buy yours?

I found them at SpiderPharm for reasonable, I guess. Has anyone here dealt with them before? Is there a better place?


I want to get started with the flies now, so when the Mantids are ready for them... and in the mean time, my Tokay and tree frog can have a "treat"

Thanks,
~Aminah

 

[bugmankeith]

The only place around here that sells them is petco, you could try trapping a few from outside and breeding them too. Rotten banana peel sitting out for a few days always works.

 

[AneesasMuse]

Thanks, but I don't want to introduce my bugs, frogs or my lizards to parasitic flies from outside. My vet bills are high enough now with all the rescues.

I'm looking for an online, lab cultured, source of "clean" feeders.

~Aminah

 

[bugmankeith]

Fruit flies arent parasitic....

I know of cultures online, but they are expensive because they are the "fancy designer" kind. Weird eye colors and such, probably a waste to buy for feeding.

 

[AneesasMuse]

I'm not talking about "fruit flies" nor am I saying they will feed ON my critters. I'm talking about Musca domestica, the common "house fly", as stated in the thread title. They aren't parasitic either, but may be full of parasites if collected from outdoors.

I hope you don't collect your feeders from outside for your tarantulas, etc. That is really not a healthy practice.

And expenses should not be the criteria if you already have the captive critter in your care... you take it in and tame it, you take the responsibility to properly care for it.

 

[padkison]

You can also get blue bottle flies from Grubco.com, $14 shipped for 1000.

These are bigger than the house flies, but you get less larva for the $ than the house flies at Spiderpharm.

There is a thread on this subject at the mantidforum.com

 

[nepenthes]

http://www.mantisplace.com/feederinsects.html

I find this place very helpful at times.

 

[bugmankeith]

Oh I thought you meant fruit flies, I never looked up the scientific name you posted.

I dont have any pets that eat flies, sorry.

 

[AneesasMuse]

Thanks you guys! Someone told me the shipping would be outrageous from Grubco.. that is, if I'm not on the East coast. I'm on the West coast.. but $14 doesn't seem that bad

'tis okay, bugmankeith.. I figured you must not have looked.

Thanks again...


~Aminah

 

[bugmankeith]

Fish bait stores sell sterile maggots of them by the hundreds, in case you can find any by you.

 

[AneesasMuse]

oooh.. that's a good idea! I'll check around tomorrow, for future reference.

thanks!!

 

[bugmankeith]

No problem, good luck!

 

[galeogirl]

I buy my maggots from a fishing store and they've always worked well as feeders, plus you can raise them up to adult flies fairly easily. A little advice, though, if you plan to raise them to adult phase, put the maggots in individual pill vials for ease of feeding later. Much easier to dump one adult fly into a cage than try to catch a fly from a container full of them.

 

[padkison]

The maggots I get from Grubco come in a damp substrate. I leave the maggots out until they pupate and then refrigerate. They last for weeks in the fridge.

I take out enough maggots to feed for a week in a delicup. When they hatch, I put the delicup in the freezer for 3 minutes to chill the flies. I transfer the chilled flies to a plastic container with a corked hole in the top and a strip of paper towel with watered honey on it. I then shake flies out the hole as needed onto a window where they stay by the light and can be plucked off for feeding. I then pull another batch of maggots from the fridge. The flies last about a week.

I've heard of others who incubate the flies and put them in the fridge where they are said to last 3 weeks.

The advantage of letting the maggots pupate is that they mature to flies sooner when pulled from the fridge and I don't get moldy substrate.

Keep in mind I have a lot of mantids to feed.