fruitfly

How do you guys transfer fruitflies to the nymphs cage without them all flying away? :mellow:

I use a small funnel. If these are the flying type stick them in the freezer for several seconds to slow them down.

I just tap mine out, used to do the fridge th : ing, but couldnt remember they were in there...lol: hey where am I and who r all u people :blink:

I totally need to show you guys my method. I do this for fruit flies and blue bottles and it works really well. I'm not at my mantises at the moment so I can't post photos just yet so I'll just try to explain.

I grow FFs and let BBs hatch inside water bottles (with modified caps). My mantis containers have a + shaped slot cut on the side of it. When feeding, I replace the flies' cap with another modified cap (made like a funnel). Then, I stick the end of the funnel-cap through the slot and the flies walk out to the inside of the mantis container. When done, I just pull it back out, the slot closes itself, and put my finger on the funnel's end to stop the flies from coming out.

Does this make sense to anybody other than myself?

OGIGA said:

I totally need to show you guys my method. I do this for fruit flies and blue bottles and it works really well. I'm not at my mantises at the moment so I can't post photos just yet so I'll just try to explain.I grow FFs and let BBs hatch inside water bottles (with modified caps). My mantis containers have a + shaped slot cut on the side of it. When feeding, I replace the flies' cap with another modified cap (made like a funnel). Then, I stick the end of the funnel-cap through the slot and the flies walk out to the inside of the mantis container. When done, I just pull it back out, the slot closes itself, and put my finger on the funnel's end to stop the flies from coming out.

Does this make sense to anybody other than myself?

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My methods are about as simple as you get but effective. I stay away from most of the stuff suggested here. If it works for you that is all that matters.

Sounds like Rick doesn't think my method is a good one. I don't like the freezer method because it's easy to have accidents (all flies frozen or flies still not disabled and fly away). Plus, the mixture and extra gunk might come out if I tilted a container too much. Since I have plenty of containers, I don't think they'd stay disabled long enough to get into all my containers. I still plan to have even more containers too!

No, Rick's just saying that he already has a method that works for him and sticks to it. I tip my wingless in, like Hibiscusmile. Winged ffs are good if you're feeding nymphs in a butterfly cube. Just put a pot in, take the lid off and the flies will distribute themselves much faster than wingless (zip the flap up quickly!). But you have to have enough pots to feed one per cube per day.

Are you using deli cups? I'd be afraid that the cross that I cut would either tear or not seal properly. Do you have any problems with that?

Some people solve the goopy or dried out culture problem by making a stoppered hole in the top of the ff pot and removing it and letting the flies crawl into a second inverted pot which is kept well lit while the bottom one is covered, but again, there's a problem of ffs escaping. I think that the easiest answer is just to make a fairly stiff medium, mist it through a hole in the top if it's drying out and discard it if it starts breaking up. But if your system is working for you...

One of the major problems with all these plans that involve ffs climbing from one encosure to another is that they often don't wanna go!

BTW. If you are like Hibiscusmile and me and forget to take yr ffs out of the 'fridge or freezer in time, use one of those simple timers that stick on the refrigerator door. They only cost a couple of bucks, but you have to remember to switch them on!

Okay, so here it is, Blue Bottle version. I don't have anything to feed fruit flies to. Oh, and all my flies can fly (I don't like those flightless/wingless ones).

Water bottle with modified cap



The + slot and the funnel-cap



What it looks like to put flies into the container

PhilinYuma said:

Are you using deli cups? I'd be afraid that the cross that I cut would either tear or not seal properly. Do you have any problems with that?

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I was concerned about that before I executed my plan, but it wasn't a problem at all with these cups!

Thanks for the replies!I tried transering flies into a new culture but they flew away...

friendofgeckos said:

Thanks for the replies!I tried transering flies into a new culture but they flew away...

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Ogiga, how do you make the funnels?

how do you transfer fruit flies when they are in a culture container? (cos the medium would flow out if tilted)

how do you transfer fruit flies when they are in a culture container? (cos the medium would flow out if tilted)

sorry double post

i have accually adopted this way of culturing just becuase of the small whole, and i get them to xfer by tapping the bottle and they goto the cap, then i upscrew it and tap them all off from inside the cap, then unscrew, and repeat, im using small sport bottles right now but i plan to make 2 liter bottle ones for more culture room =) hope this helps.

thanks it helped!

Oh darn, sorry, been away for too long.

friendofgeckos said:

Ogiga, how do you make the funnels?

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You can do this with any flat piece of plastic or even the top part of the bottle. Just bend it into the funnel shape and cut off parts you don't need. Tape it so it stays and hot-glue it to a bottle cap. Oh, the bottle cap has a hole in there that I cut.

A boy named Jonjoe said:

how do you transfer fruit flies when they are in a culture container? (cos the medium would flow out if tilted)

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Oh, forgot to address that. My FFs can fly so they just go up and I don't really need to tilt. I just tilt the mantis container. Ummm, if you have flightless/wingless flies....uhh.... I guess it'll just be like any other container. But I highly recommend flying flies!