Teamonger
Well-known member
After doing a lot more research, getting fed up with the giant fly cage in my house taking up an immense amount of room, and hating having to dig about to find the larva to feed my reptiles I decided it was time for a 2.0 fly bin to be built.
I started by picking up a new container at Walmart. It was called a "showoff" I believe and was the only container that was taller then it was wide and looked like it would work for the new setup. Its intended function was to hold file folders.
I then used my trusty dremel to cut windows in 3 of the 4 sides as well as the top. I affixed fine mesh to all the windows to make the area for the flies to live in. I sunk the top of a 32oz deli cup into the last windowless side and fitted a pantyhose stocking over it as an means to get to the flies or to insert food. As the pantyhose is just pulled tight over the opening I can replace this easily any time it gets gross.
I also added a spigot so I can drain any excess moisture as well as a little foam plugged hole in the lid to allow me to manually dump more worms into the pupating area if not enough of them make it up there.
As I was planning to make this new setup self harvesting (ie: keep it moist) I needed a dry place for the worms to pupae into flies. So I set up two different ramps. One goes up to a separate little area that will be filled with dry cocofibre for pupating and the other will lead to an outside container to be used to collect some to use as feed for my reptiles.
There is a ring of adhesive velcro around the entire inside to keep the worms from crawling up the sides forcing them to choose the ramps as a means of escape.
As always the substrate for the worms is used coffee grounds and some tea leaves.
I forgot to add some corrugated cardboard for the adults to lay their eggs in and will add that in asap. I intend to make some bundles and use the velcro around the inside to stick it to.
With all that hard work done it was time to fill it! If I had any doubts about the success of my first set up they were squashed when I started digging out worms to seed the new one. WAY more then would ever fit in this tinier setup. Those apples won't know what hit them!
I started by picking up a new container at Walmart. It was called a "showoff" I believe and was the only container that was taller then it was wide and looked like it would work for the new setup. Its intended function was to hold file folders.
I then used my trusty dremel to cut windows in 3 of the 4 sides as well as the top. I affixed fine mesh to all the windows to make the area for the flies to live in. I sunk the top of a 32oz deli cup into the last windowless side and fitted a pantyhose stocking over it as an means to get to the flies or to insert food. As the pantyhose is just pulled tight over the opening I can replace this easily any time it gets gross.
I also added a spigot so I can drain any excess moisture as well as a little foam plugged hole in the lid to allow me to manually dump more worms into the pupating area if not enough of them make it up there.
As I was planning to make this new setup self harvesting (ie: keep it moist) I needed a dry place for the worms to pupae into flies. So I set up two different ramps. One goes up to a separate little area that will be filled with dry cocofibre for pupating and the other will lead to an outside container to be used to collect some to use as feed for my reptiles.
There is a ring of adhesive velcro around the entire inside to keep the worms from crawling up the sides forcing them to choose the ramps as a means of escape.
As always the substrate for the worms is used coffee grounds and some tea leaves.
I forgot to add some corrugated cardboard for the adults to lay their eggs in and will add that in asap. I intend to make some bundles and use the velcro around the inside to stick it to.
With all that hard work done it was time to fill it! If I had any doubts about the success of my first set up they were squashed when I started digging out worms to seed the new one. WAY more then would ever fit in this tinier setup. Those apples won't know what hit them!
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