# Feeding houseflies?



## swords (Apr 28, 2010)

I haven't ever done houseflies yet but as I understand it I buy the 500 pc cups of pupae and they hatch into flies and I get them into the mantis enclosure somehow. Does anyone have video or photo series or something of how someone opens a housefly culture to feed their mantids without the flies escaping all over the house? I can grab crickets and roaches with tongs but I'm not zen enough to snag flies outta the air!  

How many flies does one adult ghost mantis eat? Just trying to get a feel for how many pupae to buy. Can the unused pupae be refrigerated until needed or will they die?

How long do the housefly/blue bottle pupae take to hatch at room temp?

Is one kind of fly bigger than the other?


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## PhilinYuma (Apr 28, 2010)

There are a couple of ways to do this. I'd feed a ghost 2-3 flies every couple of days depending on its size and what mood I'm in. Take two days' supply out of the cup, put them in a pot with a ventilated lid and put the cup in the refrigerator,_ not_ the freezer. The pupae will take about two days to eclose unless you really need them ASAP; then they'l take three days. Don't put them under a heat lamp to speed the process; you'll end up with crispy pupae. You can put the newly eclosed flies in their pot in the freezer. Check after three mins (a timer is really handy) to see if the flies have passed out. If not, give them another minute or however long it takes. You can then put the sleeping flies into the mantids' pots and take an equal number out of the fridge so that they eclose ready for the next feeding.

Some folks just drop the required number of pupae in the mantis pot and let them eclose there. Other folks keep a large pot with excelsior and some fly food in it (sugar and powdered milk works. Mist once a day) so that they always have flies available. It's up to you. Only buy enough so that they won't be in the fridge for over two weeks. To use up 500 in that time, at one fly/day/mantis, you'll need to have 35 fly-eating mantids, give or take. You may have to buy more mantids. House flies are smaller than blue or green bottles. Good luck!


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## swords (Apr 28, 2010)

Thanks a lot Phil the info is very helpful! Freezing them to knock them out I see.

Letting them actually hatch in the vivarium itself seems like it would be a great way to do it and not even have to make a transfer. Is there any drawback to doing it that way? I do really like that "set it and forget it" approach! lol

So 2 weeks in the fridge is the max before the pupae die in their shells or what exactly happens at the 2 week mark? My fridge is 35-40*F I've checked cos I keep my plant seeds in there to retain viability.

Will most all mantids eat houseflies?


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## Rick (Apr 28, 2010)

The pupae will last longer than two weeks. At least they do for me. The longer you keep them in there though the fewer you get each time.

You take out how many you want. I put them in a standard 32 oz insect cup. Once I have flies I put the whole cup in the freezer. You gotta learn how long it takes. With fresh bluebottle flies it can take up to four minutes. Start at one minute and see if they are still twitching. Don't freeze them.

Once they are not moving you can use some long tongs to pick them out of the cup. It is all very easy.

Most mantids will eat houseflies at some stage of their life. Houseflies are pretty small so once they outgrow those you may want to go with bluebottle flies. The care is the same.


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## hibiscusmile (Apr 28, 2010)

Yea, what they said!




I pupae mine in a bottle and then let them hatch, then I just stick the bottle opening in the hole I make and all done!


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## swords (Apr 28, 2010)

Why hatch them in a separate container at all instead of putting the spikes right into the vivarium?

Do some people "dust" the flies with something before feeding them to your mantids? Or what is the "bee pollen" for?

What size flies should I get (houseflies or BB) for L5/L6 ghosts? Will they take live small crickets and small dubia roaches until the fly spikes arrive?

I've raised the Chinese and Carolina mantids before with fruit flies and crickets but never messed with the houseflies at all so please bear with me! :blush:


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## hibiscusmile (Apr 28, 2010)

Some people put them in that way, for myself, I raise mantis so they get fed a bit diff, I really want the girls to appreaciate me!!!!





Yes some dust with pollen.

the ghost should be able to take either fly, some will be afraid of the bb, but will quickly get used to them. the black little fuzzy buddies


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## Nepfreak (Sep 27, 2010)

Will putting the pupae in the freezer stop the unhatched pupae from hatching?


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## Rick (Sep 28, 2010)

Nepfreak said:


> Will putting the pupae in the freezer stop the unhatched pupae from hatching?


They shouldn't hatch if kept in the fridge. Freezing may kill them.


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## Rick (Sep 28, 2010)

swords said:


> Why hatch them in a separate container at all instead of putting the spikes right into the vivarium?
> 
> Do some people "dust" the flies with something before feeding them to your mantids? Or what is the "bee pollen" for?
> 
> ...


Some people do put the pupa or spikes into the mantis enclosure. I find it better to hatch them in a seperate container so I can feed them and offer them to the mantids as adults.

I don't dust but some do. I feed them honey so that is basically what honey is made from (pollen).

Houseflies are very small. You may be surprised at how small they are. I haven't kept ghosts in a very long time but I think bb's would be better. I find I don't really like houseflies. The care is the same for house and bb.


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