Just curious if anyone does? I now live on a pasture full of cows. There are unlimited amounts of horse flies, cow flies, and bluebottle, green bottle, and house flies. I was wondering if anyone used horse or cow flies before? What was the outcome? I dont think i will ever have to buy a feeder after fruit flies again lol.
Anyone use cow flies or horse flies as feeders?
- Thread starter jrh3
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Lucky you, I have a hard time catching them. They are so big and fearful, If one hits you in the head, u get a concussion :clown: I always wanted to try, but dont
remember doing it.
remember doing it.
LAME
Tenodera sinensis (the one and only)
I would use them to your advantage. 
Sticky
Well-known member
What about parasites?
Domanating
Well-known member
If all wild mantids were as worried as you when it comes to eating wild food they would starve to death.
Also if parasites were that common, wild mantids would have gone extinct a looooong time ago.
I see more people complaining about parasites and diseases when they use controlled bought feeders than wild insects. So I'll take my chances with pesticide and parasite infested wild insects rather than the pristine and sterilized ones.
In relation to the topic, the outcome of feeding such flies to a mantis is a satisfied mantis.
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Sticky
Well-known member
I thought so. I dont worry much, I just wondered. I feed mine wild moths now instead of bought feeders. It gives my roaches a break while they enjoy dandelions, both leaves and flowers. The place I live at is not sprayed so no worries there either.
I've been feeding my mantids all sorts of wild flies with no problems for over a month lately. Some of the large flies I catch in my live fly traps I made for them have been dang near a quarter in size.
As long as it is within feeding size for the mantid they should be great feeders. Sounds like you have plenty of them to catch too
I'll have to post pictures of my easy to build fly traps later in a new thread - makes feeding my mantids easy.
I'll have to post pictures of my easy to build fly traps later in a new thread - makes feeding my mantids easy.
Alright done, took me longer than I thought it would to write it up - my homemade mantid feeder fly traps.
A easy project that takes about 20 minutes or less to make a fly trap. Once you make the first one if you want more traps it is easier/faster to make them. If you have any questions about the trap post there and I'll help.
