# Where can I purchase housefly maggots?



## xenuwantsyou

And what do you use to feed them. I was thinking of soaking asponge in honey and letting th maggots take care of the rest. Thanks for your help.


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## Rick

www.grubco.com You don't feed the maggots anything. You keep them in the fridge and then you take some out of the fridge and within a week you have flies. I feed the flies honey to make them last much longer.


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## wuwu

grubco actually sells bluebottle maggots. for houseflies, i buy from www.spiderpharm.com


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## Rick

> grubco actually sells bluebottle maggots. for houseflies, i buy from www.spiderpharm.com


Not much if any difference when it comes to using them as feeders. They are basically the same thing.


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## xenuwantsyou

Thanks. And yeah the difference between the two doesn't really make a difference.


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## Alex 1

I think it does, but only because bluebottles are 2-3 times bigger.


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## Rick

> I think it does, but only because bluebottles are 2-3 times bigger.


Well if thats the case then grubco is not sending me bluebottle flies. Cause what I get look exactly like houseflies.


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## wuwu

are you sure rick? have you bought flies from anywhere else before?


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## Rick

> are you sure rick? have you bought flies from anywhere else before?


Yeah I am sure I get my maggots from grubco and they turn into flies that are just like houseflies. I can even take a pic.


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## wuwu

yes, please take a pic because i think you're confusing bluebottles with houseflies. all the people i've talked to that buy from grubco all get bluebottles from them. it would be weird that only you are recieving houseflies. you can also differentiate the two from the size, the bluebottles are much larger. bluebottles are about 1/2 an inch and houseflies are about half a cm.


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## Nick Barta

Oregonfeederinsects.com sells 1,000 housefly pupae for $2.00, with shipping 2nd day for $6.85, for a total of $8.85. The pupae last about three to four weeks in the refridgerator, so you keep adding pupae daily into your hatching container to keep them coming! Have honey or sugar and powdered milk for the hatched flies, and you are a fly hatching machine.

Spiderpharm is alittle more expensive, 1,000 housefly pupae is $3.90 and shipping is $8.20 (but is ground-4 days) so you pay a total of $12.10.

The savings of $3.25 per order is of value to me, but the shorter shipping time is more important when you are out of flies, so I use Oregon Feeder Insects.

I heard a rumor that if you warm up the pupae at room temperature once a week the pupae last much longer-I think DeShawn may be the inventor of this practice.


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## Rick

> yes, please take a pic because i think you're confusing bluebottles with houseflies. all the people i've talked to that buy from grubco all get bluebottles from them. it would be weird that only you are recieving houseflies. you can also differentiate the two from the size, the bluebottles are much larger. bluebottles are about 1/2 an inch and houseflies are about half a cm.


I honestly don't know what they are. They are about 3/8" long which is not very big. Wrong or not this type of fly which is what you find in your house sometimes is commonly called a housfly. So if you want to get technical they may not be true houseflies. All I know is they are perfect food for small to medium mantids so these will be fine for what xenu is looking for.


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## Alex 1

^^^That's a bluebottle, Rick. I know they're bigger because I ordered housefly pupae from somewhere(I don't remember, probably spiderpharm) and they were much smaller than bluebottles I ordered later on. Also, bluebottles are shiny and dark blue. Houseflies(musca domestica) are not shiny and have relatively dull colors.


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## Rick

> ^^^That's a bluebottle, Rick. I know they're bigger because I ordered housefly pupae from somewhere(I don't remember, probably spiderpharm) and they were much smaller than bluebottles I ordered later on. Also, bluebottles are shiny and dark blue. Houseflies(musca domestica) are not shiny and have relatively dull colors.


Well I honestly wouldn't want anything smaller. These are perfect for mantids. Grubcos site doesn't say what kind of fly they are so I always assumed they were houseflies since they are the same kind of fly that gets in the house in the summer.


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## xenuwantsyou

Well thank you both of you. I actually have a need for both types. I just caught a bluebottle looking fly in my house and it was perfect for one of my L5 H. Grandis.


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## wuwu

i prefer bluebottles over houseflies. i try to skip houseflies altogether and just stick with the bigger fruitflies, bluebottles, and turkistan roaches.


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## Alex 1

> Well I honestly wouldn't want anything smaller. These are perfect for mantids. Grubcos site doesn't say what kind of fly they are so I always assumed they were houseflies since they are the same kind of fly that gets in the house in the summer.


Yeah, me neither. The houseflies I got surprised me on how small they were. Not really practical at raising anything. And I emailed grubco a while back and they said they were bluebottles, not houseflies.

On a side note, it's really easy to catch flies on warmer days. I just leave a piece of raw chicken outside in an insect cup and come back in 30 min to close the lid on them. I've caught up to 6 flies at a time this way, but it could be improved with a bigger containet and more bait.


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## Rick

Thanks to those who clarifed what kind of fly they were. But for the original poster I recommend the kind I get.


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## yen_saw

Blue bottle is great for larger and adult mantis, more meat as compared to house fly. I have also noticed that larger orchid mantis ignore small house fly all together. However, house flies are great for L3-L5 nymphs. I have also noticed that house fly from Oergon insect feeder is considerably larger than spiderpharm's house fly, must have been the food they are feeding to the maggots.


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## Nick Barta

Rick,

Do the maggots keep in the refrigerator for 3 weeks like grubco says, and is it better to get the individual containers for pulling out what you need rather than "spooning" out of a 1,000 count container?

Thanks for the response,

Nick Barta


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## Nick Barta

Yen,

I think you are correct on Oregon Feeder Insects feeding the flies a higher level of food. Skip, the owner is a supplier to scientific research facilities, and is passionate about the care of his stock. He even takes the time to mix pupae in various stages of developement so that you have more even hatch rates. Skip started the term "feeder insects" and was the first that many others still copy.


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## padkison

I had problems with my Grubco maggot substrate molding (blue dusty) after a couple weeks in the fridge. This caused the maggots to pupate and then I had poor hatch rates.

This batch I left the maggots out at room temp until they pupated and then put them in the fridge. I separated some maggots into a container without substrate and put them in the fridge straight off.

We'll see what happens.


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## yen_saw

Nick, Chuck (Spiderpharm) also feed the flies with some good food too,but my guess is not as good as the food (in boosting the flies size) compared to Skip's feed. Are you sure Skip is still selling at $2 per 1000 pupa?

Perry, i let the spike (grubs) turn into pupa with the substrate (dust saw like mateiral), but i roll the container once a while so that not all the pupa will stick together which hampered hatching rate. After that, I separate the pupa from substrate (dust saw like mateiral) and leave it in the fridge, they can last for 3 weeks. The hatching rate for of these blue bottle flies been always good for me.


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## Rick

> Rick,Do the maggots keep in the refrigerator for 3 weeks like grubco says, and is it better to get the individual containers for pulling out what you need rather than "spooning" out of a 1,000 count container?
> 
> Thanks for the response,
> 
> Nick Barta


Yeah they keep fine. I normally buy two 500 count containers. They actually last longer than 3 weeks for me at least.


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## Nick Barta

Yen,

They did charge me $4.50 an ounce, but the website says $2.00 an ounce. Ill call them monday to see which is correct.


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## yen_saw

Thanks Nick, could you please share with us the website link for Oregon feeder insects here?


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## Alex 1

I'll also say that keeping the maggots and pupae in substrate increases survival and hatch rates. I used coco coir(coconut fibers) and put in a container of dry catfood in case they got hungry.

When I'd recieve my order of maggots, I used to just keep them in the bag they came in at room temp, but a huge amount die (75-90%). Now it's substrate.


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## xenuwantsyou

Thanks for the suggestions. Any other methods of storing the maggots are welcome too.


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## Rick

> Thanks for the suggestions. Any other methods of storing the maggots are welcome too.


Leave them how they are shipped to you and in the fridge.


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## Nick Barta

OREGONFEEDERINSECTS.COM UPDATE ON INFO!!!!!! The pricing on 1,000 housefly pupae is $5.00/ounce plus $5.85 shipping for a total of $10.85. For two ounces it is $4.50/ounce plus $5.85 shipping for a total of $14.85. The shipping is 2nd day, and larger quantities will reduce your per ounce price.

Yen, the website is being updated, and has some incorrect info, so the best way to order is from 10:00a.m. to 2:00p.m. Monday through Friday, by calling 1-866-641-8938. Sorry for the wrong information.


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## Rick

1000 count from grubco is $14.50 shipped just for a comparison.


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## yen_saw

Grubco always provides extra, order for 1000 larvae usually end up to around 4000 pupa (No i didn't actually counted each of them!)


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## wuwu

i would also like to add that by gutloading them w/ honey, not only are they more nutritious, they also live a lot longer. i've kept both houseflies and bluebottles alive in the fridge alive for over 2 weeks.


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## Rick

> i would also like to add that by gutloading them w/ honey, not only are they more nutritious, they also live a lot longer. i've kept both houseflies and bluebottles alive in the fridge alive for over 2 weeks.


I feed the flies honey but nothign for the maggots since they are inactive while in the fridge. I don't put the flies in the fridge though.


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## OGIGA

I tried a slice of banana and there are maggots all over it now. And yes, it does smell like banana when I open the container.


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## yen_saw

Rick, do you have the pupa and honey water together in the mantis cage? I can never feed the mantis without finding any escape flies if i don't fridge them.


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## Frankie Fan

are there any british based sites that sell fruit flies and such?...if not where can i get a hold of them plz.


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## anthony2001a

> are there any british based sites that sell fruit flies and such?...if not where can i get a hold of them plz.


If you can't find a UK site, just visit any college/university with a genetics lab. Almost certainly, you will find Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies there for genetics studies. They will be happy to let you have a jar of adults and you can then breed those for your own purposes.

Anthony


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## OGIGA

The flies from Spiderpharm are indeed houseflies (rather than blue bottles). After they eclose, their abdomen is pretty big and is dull white-yellowish in color. The houseflies I catch from outside have flat abdomens. Some houseflies that I catch from outside are tiny! I don't know if they are even houseflies, but they are about half the size (or smaller) of the ones that I got from Spiderpharm. And yes, I'm sure they are not fruit flies.


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