Collecting Blue/Green Bottle Fly Larva to Pupate?

[Teamonger]

So after cleaning out my freezer of a TON of stuff (meat included) and tossing it all in the compost bin said bin has become a nightmarish writhing mess of larva and flies. On that note has anyone been crazy enough to attempt to collect the larva as they attempt to crawl out of a compost bin and then pupae them to flies? I am hoping/assuming they are like the black solider flies and are only attempting to crawl out of the bin and away from the food source once they are looking to pupate. I collected a few hundred into a tub with cocofibre and am going to see if I can't get any pupa out of it. There was much breath holding and faces made but if I get some nice bottle fly pupa out of it that would be pretty awesome.

I am sure my neighbors all think I'm completely insane by now... yup that crazy girl that's always out catching things at night on her front step and collecting maggots from her green bin....

 

[hibiscusmile]

Meat should not be sent to the compost bin, I forget why, just should not be added.

 

[Teamonger]

This is a city composting setup that is picked up weekly (biweekly in the winter) and meat is permitted.

Also I think the only reason not to is that meat stinks, draws pests (insect and otherwise like raccoons/rats), and does not break down as fast as other items if you are doing backyard composting. Not a problem with city wide composting setups.

 

[CosbyArt]

@Teamonger For pupating fly larvae as feeders the best thing I've found was Jay's setup...



You may be able to adapt it for your needs; however, if you try to breed or keep bottle flies indoors as a culture, I have yet to read of any that work with any real success. See the below posts about that...

 

[Teamonger]

Yeah I'm not going to try to culture them in any sustainable way. Just figured as my bin was filthy with what I assume were mature larva it would be foolish not to collect some and let them pupae for a one time fly feast.

Thanks for the info I'll scan through it all

 

[hibiscusmile]

I just read somewhere about the filth they carry, best to buy them from those who culture them. 

 

[Teamonger]

I just read somewhere about the filth they carry, best to buy them from those who culture them. 

Unfortunately that is not an option where I live. I have searched high and low and there is nowhere I can find to buy either pupa or spikes. At least this way I know what I put in my green bin, what they've been eating, and where they came from.

They have started pupating and I'm very pleased. Honestly its no different then catching wild flies to use as feeders. Actually a bit better as they won't have a chance to fly all over and get into who knows what.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I gottcha!

 

[GhostNRB]

Yeah ur own bin is prob cleaner than anywhere else ur gonna find them. Cool stuff tho, gonna keep an eye on my compost bin too lol

 

[Teamonger]

@GhostNRB Sure is. I never updated this thread with how this turned out. It worked wonderfully! The flies all pupated and hatched into flies with no issue in their cup of cocofibre. 

I went an extra step and tried to culture them like you would fruit flies (same medium) and that was a resounding failure. The flies lived forever but never laid anything. I might try one more time using homemade medium with beer in it. The commercial fruit fly medium might just not be even remotely nasty enough for them to lay eggs in. A ton of them also managed to escape and made a week of my life one big fly hunt.

If you have a greenbin that gets picked up weekly by the garbage men its a pretty viable way to farm flies without anything getting too horrible or close to your house.