# Canadian Fruit Flies



## gp724 (May 8, 2016)

Where can I find flightless  melanogaster fruit flies in Canada? I found them in a website called supercricket.ca I think, but shipping was ridiculous. Is anyone here located in Canada that could ship to Alberta? I don't mind paying $25 for fruit flies and shipping, but I don't really want to pay more than that.


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## gp724 (May 8, 2016)

Would it be possible just to kill and chop up larger prey(crickets, mealworms) and feed it to the nymphs like that? Would they be able to survive on that until they are large enough to eat live crickets/mealworms? I think I read that this is possible, but that you have to touch the bug parts to their mouth. Or would raw chicken breast work? I read about someone that fed their mantis raw hamburger meat, but I think that eould be kind of fatty. What's your opinion on chopping up larger bugs, and raw chicken? This would be for newly hatched nymphs.


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## Rick (May 9, 2016)

gp724 said:


> Would it be possible just to kill and chop up larger prey(crickets, mealworms) and feed it to the nymphs like that? Would they be able to survive on that until they are large enough to eat live crickets/mealworms? I think I read that this is possible, but that you have to touch the bug parts to their mouth. Or would raw chicken breast work? I read about someone that fed their mantis raw hamburger meat, but I think that eould be kind of fatty. What's your opinion on chopping up larger bugs, and raw chicken? This would be for newly hatched nymphs.




Your first idea would work but to do this may be a bit difficult if you have a lot of nymphs. What about pin head crickets?


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## mantisman 230 (May 9, 2016)

You can also attract wild flying insects to feed them


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## gp724 (May 9, 2016)

None of the pet stores in my city carry pinheads sadly  . I will probably just cut up mealworms/crickets then. I think I'll make a Co2 chamber to kill them, as they just fall asleep and it isn't painful for them. Is it safe for them to eat bugs that have been killed with Co2? I'd think it is, but I want to make sure.


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## avn (May 13, 2016)

why can't you order them on line?

i think the next best option after flightless fruit flies is probably flighted fruit flies. You can capture wild ones and make a colony.


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## avn (May 13, 2016)

I don't think it will

be a good idea to feed an ooth entirely off of dead bugs.  Feeding with dead bugs sounds like it takes lots of effort and with an ooth there are literally 150 of the buggers.    They need live prey!


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## avn (May 13, 2016)

Will Amazon send them to you? 

http://www.amazon.com/Producing-Flightless-Drosophila-Hydei-Culture/dp/B00JJWEPG0/ref=pd_bxgy_199_img_2?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=1NN2DFSB2HBETZXFFJW3

I did some searching around and indeed it's really hard to find someone who will ship them to Canada!


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## gp724 (May 13, 2016)

Can't find them on amazon. My local pet store can possibly order pinheads in for me. I will have to see how that goes.


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## gp724 (May 14, 2016)

Are pinheads safe for newly hatched chinese nymphs? Thats really all I have access to.


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## avn (May 14, 2016)

Try culturing wild fruit flies that fly. 

you can make a lil trap with vinegar and old fruit and leave it outside. I made a wild fruit fly culture accidentally once when I tried to use farmers market strawberries to start a flightless culture -flying hydei and melanogaster hatched from the strawberries!

i'd make the culture now because you want to have it ready to go when your nymphs hatch. 

Its possible to feed with flying fruit flies, you pop them in the freezer for a minute and they get knocked out, then quickly dump them into to the mantishaus


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## Orin (May 15, 2016)

It is highly unlikely you could pull off rearing nymphs with chopped up dead prey. By highly unlikely I mean practically impossible. You might want to bite the bullet and pay whatever you have to for the flies or leave ripe fruit in a bowl on the inside of a screen window to attract wild flies to start a culture. You may find your comfort worth the cost of buying flightless flies.


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## gp724 (May 15, 2016)

It's a chinese mantis egg case, the flies will cost me well over $100. Would pinhead crickets work? I absolutely do not have access to wild fruit flies, I have stated this before. I can get mealworms, any size of cricket, and waxworms. Those are the only bugs I can get. I also can get baby food, milk, honey and yogurt, along with beef, chicken and turkey.


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## jseng (May 16, 2016)

Handfeeding an entire ooth worth of chinese nymphs would be a TON of work. Fruit flies are insanely easy to culture yourself--why don't you buy a couple cultures of FFs, then use them to seed homemade cultures from that point on?


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## Sarah K (May 16, 2016)

gp724 said:


> It's a chinese mantis egg case, the flies will cost me well over $100. Would pinhead crickets work? I absolutely do not have access to wild fruit flies, I have stated this before. I can get mealworms, any size of cricket, and waxworms. Those are the only bugs I can get. I also can get baby food, milk, honey and yogurt, along with beef, chicken and turkey.


I do believe you can probably feed your Chinese nymphs pinhead crickets, as long as you have access to them. Dead prey will really not work though.


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## gp724 (May 16, 2016)

jseng said:


> Handfeeding an entire ooth worth of chinese nymphs would be a TON of work. Fruit flies are insanely easy to culture yourself--why don't you buy a couple cultures of FFs, then use them to seed homemade cultures from that point on?


Because I do NOT have access to fruit flies. I have already said this. I'm not allowed to keep fruit flies. I live in a condo, and the owner of the building doesn't want a fruit fly infestation in they escape. Even flightless, I'm not allowed to have them. Pinhead crickets are fine though. I'm no longer planning to feed them dead bugs. I can feed them any of the following: pinhead crickets, waxworms, mealworms, regular worms, fruit, babyfood, milk, honey. I don't have access to anything else.


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## gp724 (May 16, 2016)

Sarah K said:


> I do believe you can probably feed your Chinese nymphs pinhead crickets, as long as you have access to them. Dead prey will really not work though.


Thanks for the reply, I do have access to them, that would work great!


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## avn (May 17, 2016)

let us know how they work out


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## Silly~Chili (Dec 28, 2017)

gp724 said:


> Are pinheads safe for newly hatched chinese nymphs? Thats really all I have access to.


The best thing to do is just let the nymphs eat each other. That way you can keep the strongest nymphs and they'll be well fed til you have access to bigger food.


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## Teamonger (Dec 29, 2017)

Flightless fruit flies are indeed crazy hard to find in canada. Your best bet to try to get some in the future so you can start you own colonies and never have to buy them ever again (this is what i did) is to check reptile shows/forums/fackbook groups for your area.

Surely someone somewhere in the reptile community has dart frogs or hatchlings that require ffs and can point you in the right direction. 

Meanwhile i would say pinheads should work.

Are you unable to just leave fruit outside somewhere in your yard to rot and get a colony going that way?


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## Teamonger (Dec 29, 2017)

@gp724Or there is always kijiji! Found this add which also has bean weevils which might be perfect for you. I have never tried them myself but i have read good things. Perhaps do a bit of research and see if they might work instead of ffs  

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-reptiles-amphibians/edmonton/fruit-flies-springtails-bean-weevils/1273218426?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true


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## Connor (Dec 29, 2017)

@Teamonger Nice find! Just wanted to let you know that @gp724 hasn’t been on the forum for over a year ?. Hopefully this could help other Canadians though.


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## Teamonger (Dec 29, 2017)

@Connor lol I had not looked at the time stamps just that there was a new message and a Canadian in trouble! Having fought those battles I had to leap i to action  

Now Im wishing I could get bean weevils as a back up hehe


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## Serle (Dec 30, 2017)

@Teamonger  Happy Season .......  I saw the thread and thought the same till i looked at the time stamp ,  haven't seen him in a while.  Yes winter is a challenge to ship any thing , it is surprizing what drosophila came survive........ S


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