Culturing Blue Bottle Flies Nasty-ness

[Moonstonedragons]

I tried to culture blue bottle flies without rotting meat or anything stinky. I decided to try Bug Berger (Repashy) and Fruit Fly Medium (Repashy).

At first it was not going anywhere. All the flies died off in the cup with the Bug Berger. Didn't see anything going on in the cup with the Fruit Fly Medium. Tonight as I passed by the cultures, I noticed something moving. My cup is full of maggots. Now the container is set up just like a standard fruit fly culture. Bottom (because I live in Las Vegas and it is so dry) is much wetter than the normal formula, so it is a bit viscus.

My question is what do I do now? Will they pupate on the sides of the container like FFs? Is there something I need to do to get the little dry cocoons you get when you buy them?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Jay]

Hmm. Thanks for the questions.

I have cultured both house flies and blue bottles.Very good ventilation is a must. It does need to be kept warm and you will need some form of dry substrate for them to pupate in when they get close to pupating. Trying to keep the dry substrate seperate from the wet sticky culture material is always the tricky part. There have been some previous posts that might help that have been about culturing flies.

 

[LAME]

Hot glue a small deli full of a dry substrate inside the culture. I think I read somewhere that some use cornmeal or flour.... But I could be mistaken.

Nice job btw. I remember posting thread not to far back on culturing blue/green bottles aaaaand didn't get to kindly of reviews, nor help... So I'm glad you pulled it off!

TAKE THAT, Non-believers! ⌒.⌒

 

[MantidBro]

Hot glue a small deli full of a dry substrate inside the culture. I think I read somewhere that some use cornmeal or flour.... But I could be mistaken.

Nice job btw. I remember posting thread not to far back on culturing blue/green bottles aaaaand didn't get to kindly of reviews, nor help... So I'm glad you pulled it off!

TAKE THAT, Non-believers! ⌒.⌒

Yeah that guy did say flour, youre right!

I agree, nice job!

I know, i was surprised by how many people were against it. Youd think more people would want to do it themselves considering we are all mantid owners!

 

[CosbyArt]

I have been doing it outside with rotten meat. I have a couple larger fly traps that I don't clean and just keep adding meat to, and they have 800 to 1000 bb spikes/maggots. I have yet to see any pupate, but there is plenty of dry areas for them to do it.

I got to admit it would be nice being able to do it indoors without rotten smells. As summer doesn't last forever, and when I buy pupae they often go bad before I can use them all. I found articles that recommend using cotton balls dipped in milk, or wet fermented dog biscuits - but have to say both have a foul odor given enough time (or quantity) - especially with adequate airflow for the culture.

Best of luck, and let us know the outcome.

 

[Moonstonedragons]

I will keep you posted. For those of you that are unfamiliar with this product, it smells like cinnamon and doesn't mold.

 

[Moonstonedragons]

Tried to attach a photo, but could not figure out how.

I cracked open the culture and there are a bunch cocoons in there. Looks like they are going to the "higher and dryer" excelcelor (sp) and pupating. I added a barrier and added more dry excelceor and will see what happens.

 

[Mantis Man13]

That is pretty cool

 

[MikhailsDinos]

You can also throw in some All-bran to dry it out.

 

[Moonstonedragons]

I don't want to dry out the medium. I want the ones I didn't harvest to hatch out and see if I can keep a continuous culture going. When you open the container there is a funky smell, but it isn't as bad as sour milk or rotting meat. I can't smell it unless I open the culture and smell it. This is all being done indoors and I keep my house at 80f.

 

[MikhailsDinos]

Adding the all-bran will not dry out all the medium, it provides a place for the maggots to pupate and become flies. Also if its a 32oz container then that is too small for them to keep hatching and breeding like fruit flies. It will work much better if you have a bigger container with more air flow. A lot of the time the flies lay too many eggs in the small container and the maggots smother. Sometimes you can get lucky if they lay less eggs. I've done many tests on this. I use 15 gallon buckets and even this is to small sometimes.

I don't want to dry out the medium. I want the ones I didn't harvest to hatch out and see if I can keep a continuous culture going. When you open the container there is a funky smell, but it isn't as bad as sour milk or rotting meat. I can't smell it unless I open the culture and smell it. This is all being done indoors and I keep my house at 80f.

 

[Jay]

Adding the all-bran will not dry out all the medium, it provides a place for the maggots to pupate and become flies. Also if its a 32oz container then that is too small for them to keep hatching and breeding like fruit flies. It will work much better if you have a bigger container with more air flow. A lot of the time the flies lay too many eggs in the small container and the maggots smother. Sometimes you can get lucky if they lay less eggs. I've done many tests on this. I use 15 gallon buckets and even this is to small sometimes.

I second this! -Wheat bran is SUPER CHEAP from feed stores.

-A 32 oz container may work for a really small quantity, but otherwise not.

-My reason for die-off in the larvae state has almost always been insufficient air flow. As the larvae get larger, so does their need for air flow. If they crawl to the top and gunk up the lid all larvae inside will die. A 5-gallon bucket size works well for me (especially if it is more wide than tall).