Outdoor Fly Rearing/Collecting Project

[SIZE=medium]As part of getting back into the hobby I have been experimenting with an outdoor fly attracting/raising enclosure.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]Here is an account of my experience.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]I attract a lot of flies each day - enough to feed all my mantids. I also culture enough larvae to supply me for a while - if I could ever figure out the ideal temp and humidity for them to pupate... =([/SIZE]



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[SIZE=medium]I hope this helps someone or gives someone ideas.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]-Jay[/SIZE]

Looks like you have a great setup to get all the flies and larvae you need. Nice trick with the incline to separate the areas. Something I should definitely setup when it warms up here - single digit temperatures lately here...

I have to ask though - is there any way to culture the house flies in deli cups, like fruit flies, but without rotting meat indoors? Perhaps with vinegar and/or yeast like the fruit flies? Would be nice to have them on hand than worrying about ordering pupae all the time or only having such a setup in the summer (but without any the rest of the year).

I'll keep searching but so far I haven't turned up much on the topic of rearing flies like this.

Dear Thomas,

Thanks for the compliments, though I feel there is a lot more research that can be done to make fly rearing viable for the everyday hobbiest.

Houseflies require protein, fiber and certain strains of bacteria in their cultures. I was told by one company that they reared their flies on rice hulls, though there may be something else that they were not telling me. (= One gentleman from England cultured his flies on some plant-based media, though I have yet to encounter what that might have been (it was his own little trade secret). I have tried raising flies on rabbit-type food (Hogsetta [sp?] diet), though it is a lot more work and less effective than high-protien dog food.

There are not a lot of resources other than what has been mentioned previously in other posts. Here in the forum there is a post about raising musca domestica that I started a while ago. Because housefly pupae require a lot of ventilation and because the process of raising them can require a whole lot of room in a house, the outdoor rearing container is the most practical for me. I add water occasionally and can harvest a dozen or more flies just by capturing visitors. Having the larvae and pupae on hand is helpful in case I need to leave town for a few days.

Many thanks Jay.

After lots of near endless searches the last few days and signing up to several scientific websites I have found many great articles. I'd share links but most are not viewable by non-members and other tricks. If interested let me know and I can send you a zip of the PDF articles directly.

The articles range from rearing the houseflies on dog biscuits, using nothing more than cottonballs soaked in milk, to a mix of bran and oats then a tiny piece of beef liver is added for a few hours to make the flies lay eggs. The majority concentrate on low to no odor setups (while some do use manure and such), and cover the field of building suitable housing for flies of all stages and proper care.

I have ordered several housefly pupae and hope to do a few setups indoors to see which, if any, work. Of course if I figure anything out I'll be sure to share it here on the forum.