# How do blue bottle flies work.



## pedro92 (Mar 8, 2008)

How do they work? Are they good? Easy? Do they take alot of time? can someone post pictures of them and the setups


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## macro junkie (Mar 8, 2008)

no set to really..i keep maggots in the fridge..when i want flys i take out a small hand full and place them in a deli cup..in the deli cup has thin layer of honey wiped in side..when they hatch which i put about 10 in a cup after 3 days of them eating i then release hem in the net cage..i dont have to feed single cups with them so its pretty easy for me..iv only had 3 escape in about 2 momnths.


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## darkspeed (Mar 8, 2008)

Chameleonare said:


> How do they work? Are they good? Easy? Do they take alot of time? can someone post pictures of them and the setups


At the moment I got about 100 of them and 100 houseflys locked in my ghost enclosure... they eat alot of honey... The ghosts seem to strike at them more than the houseflies, but considering they are swarmed with food neither are eating much anymore... both are about as stuffed as me by hour two at the chinese buffet lol.


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## pedro92 (Mar 8, 2008)

Can you take a pic of what you keep them in if possible. Whats the difference between a house and blue bottle fly


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## Rick (Mar 8, 2008)

Bluebottles are a littler larger. I keep the maggots in the fridge and take out a few pinches of them and place them in a 32 oz deli cup. They turn into flies within several days. I feed them honey to make them live longer and more nutritious. Try the search feature as this has been discussed many times.

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9148


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## mrblue (Mar 11, 2008)

basically whats already been said but wanted to add that if you use bluebottles like this, try to get into the habit of taking a few maggots/pupae out of the fridge on a regular basis, like every few days. the problem is they take close to two weeks (i have found) to pupate and then hatch out into flies. so lets say you take some out of the fridge, you wait a bit, and they hatch and everythings fine and all your mantids have food, fine. but then the flies run out. so you take some more out the fridge, but they wont hatch for another 2 weeks, and some people even have trouble getting any to hatch. for this reason, if you take some out of the fridge (even when you dont need them straight away) you can have a constant reliable supply. i guess its almost the same principle as always having too many FF cultures than you need.


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## Rick (Mar 11, 2008)

mrblue said:


> basically whats already been said but wanted to add that if you use bluebottles like this, try to get into the habit of taking a few maggots/pupae out of the fridge on a regular basis, like every few days. the problem is they take close to two weeks (i have found) to pupate and then hatch out into flies. so lets say you take some out of the fridge, you wait a bit, and they hatch and everythings fine and all your mantids have food, fine. but then the flies run out. so you take some more out the fridge, but they wont hatch for another 2 weeks, and some people even have trouble getting any to hatch. for this reason, if you take some out of the fridge (even when you dont need them straight away) you can have a constant reliable supply. i guess its almost the same principle as always having too many FF cultures than you need.


True. You need to plan it carefully in order to always have some on hand. THey should not take two weeks to turn into flies. To speed it up put them someplace warm.


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## hibiscusmile (Mar 11, 2008)

I use the pupae, I just put them in a cup - o - flies and let them hatch. The cup has a place to put the egg case (pupae) and the fly food or honey and water, In about 4 days they hatch and last up to a month with the food. Very easy, and they are bigger than house flies and not nearly as hard to catch if they get loose! Try them you will like them, available on my site under feeder food &amp; the cup o flies under cup o flies! ps these are not maggots and do not have to be refridgerator!!!


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## joossa (Mar 12, 2008)

Those are some nice pictures MJ!  

I have always been taught that blowflies/bottleflies take 7 days to complete their life cycle under ideal conditions. For those of you that raise them from the larval stage, what do you use for the medium (food)? I know the adults eat honey and photosynthates, but it's a different story with the maggots... it must smell pretty bad. Or do most of you buy the larava at the "ready to pupate point"?


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## mrblue (Mar 13, 2008)

i get mine from a fishing shop and if left out after buying them, they pupate within about 3 days max. so yeh i assume theyre always sold just about ready to pupate. this would make sense as fishermen probably dont want to be dealing with feeding maggots up or anything, just buy them and use them straight away, so selling them at the biggest they can be while still being maggots seems to make sense.


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## bugzilla (Mar 22, 2008)

How long do the maggots last in a fridge?


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## OGIGA (Mar 26, 2008)

I'd say a month before hatch rates become substantially low.


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## bugzilla (Mar 26, 2008)

I bought some maggots yesterday and they are already starting to pupate. Man the STINK!!!!


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