Public Message For Phil,

[GreenOasis]

Now that I have your attention! I thought I should post this here so that it appears for everyone to see.

Phil sent me his fly-rearing media and asked that I report the results, so here they are:

At first, I didn't think it was working because I only had a few good flies to work with (I mean, less than a dozen!)...but then I got in some new pupae and put them in the enclosures & let them have at the media. I still didn't see any larvae, even after a week, but I changed the media anyway. I kept the old dish of media, even though it looked pretty dead because, well, I thought there might be hope. Put it out in our new "rat room" because the smell was getting bad & left it there unmisted & unchecked for several days. Went out to check on rats yesterday & happened to glance down at the fly media cup & there were pupae on it! So, I brought it back into the house, admidst the angered cursing of a disgusted husband, and peeled back the cracked open, stinking skin of the stuff to find many more pupae & larvae wriggling around! This was just houseflies. I also started blue bottles at the same time, but haven't seen larvae in that "pot" of media yet...still, I am not going to throw it out until I'm REALLY sure there's nothing in it!

But Phil...I do have a question, and I hope you will respond (as I know how much you love to comment on posts!) How do I separate the pupae & larvae from the stinking medium? The stuff is STICKY & NASTY. Can I wash it off of them without drowning them? Do I toss them with cornmeal or...? (Why do the pupae from Chuck come in cornmeal???)

This question is for anyone to respond, not just Phil. If you have experience breeding the suckers and can give me some valuable insight, so much the better for me! My pupae are MUCH larger than the originals I started out with from Chuck, so...I guess Phil's media is good!

One more thing...I didn't put any food in the enclosures that was strictly for the flies (such as a honey/milk powder mix) or water...the flies are still going strong and seem to live a good, long time without this extra bit of effort. They go into the container of wet media & eat & drink from there!

 

[PeterF]

In my older experiments I was ripping the dry media apart to collect the pupae. I would then try to put that back together for the remaining maggots, but the days following that smelled many times worse than before opening it.

The actual process of picking the pupae out of my attempt at a dog food medium required a strong stomach. I have experienced worse, but it was pretty bad. And time consuming.

If you really need to separate the pupae, then you may be in for an adventure. With my current trials I am finding the pupae on the top, and more importantly, I am positioned to simply let the buggers climb out of the medium as they hatch if they were dumb enough to pupate below the surface.

Though I know Phil has a few extra tricks he has mentioned a few times.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Well, I'm really happy that the fly food supported the flies from egg to eclosure, but I am very sorry that you are experiencing bad smells, that can only come from the presence of anaerobic bacteria. Peter had a similar experience, but he was using a 32 oz pot which does make adequate ventilation difficult.

The only thing that I can imagine is that you are starting out with a very wet mixture -- which is fine -- and then letting the top layer, with the additional wood chips that have floated to the top, adhere to the sides and dry out into a thick crust so that no air can get to the "active" layer where the maggots are feeding. As they eat, they should turn over the food, i.e. eat and excrete it, so that the resulting soil looks very much like loam that has passed through earthworms. It should have only the faintest odor, if any at all.

It is a good idea to spray the tray lightly each day and to remove it after about the fifth day, replacing it if necessary. Do be careful, though, not to make it too wet or the maggots will try to climb out of the tray, ready or not. After you have removed the tray, it is easy to lift the dried mat on the surface, moisten the active layer and put the mat back in place to reduce dehydration.This will allow you to ensure that the medium is fresh and being turned over, and when the original consistency is completely gone, add some more of the medium. It takes a little experience to know how much extra to put in, but the maggots should make their last molt to pupae in almost pure turned soil. The pupae can then be sieved out. I think that Chuck uses a powder to make sure that the pupae are dry, since he is working on a very large scale. I don't need to perform this step.

I hope that that helps, folks, thanks for your follow up, and let us know when you have solved the stink problem!

 

[GreenOasis]

You know...I think I do know what it is. Speaking of aeration, I think that there is not enough wood chip in the mixture. How should the ratio be, do you think, Phil? 50% medium, 50% wood chip? Or something different? All I did was took the bag of wood chip that you sent & mixed it directly with the bag of medium, but you sent quit a bit of medium and only a little bag of wood chip, so I probably have the mix at 80% medium & 20% wood chip. I bet if I raised the wood chip ratio, they could consume more of the medium in that time-frame and I would have less medium rotting underneath the top "dry" layer.

I have ordered more wood chip (the exact type of stuff you sent, I hope!), so my next few batches, I will be able to say with more certainty if that's what it was!

On another note: I checked on the blue bottles pot again last night, as well as some fresher ones I took out from the enclosures a few days ago. I saw some activity in the fresh ones as well as the older ones (still nothing in the blue bottles, though), but the strangest thing...they are being kept on a "cool" floor right now (away from hubby's sensitive nose!), and wouldn't you know, they're generating their own heat! :blink: I picked them up one by one, and to my amazement, the pot that was in between the other two was WARM!

Oh, and I am using 8 oz deli cups for the medium & spraying once a day, btw. Seems to be working so far!