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mantidian

mantidian

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hi

my ooth is here and im wondering if anyone can teach how to trap/breed wild fruit flies for my nymphs??

i've tried a banana once but nothing appeared but fungus.

urgent

cheers,mantidian ;)

 
You don't. You go buy a colony of flightless (easier) flies and raise your own. Just too much work to catch wild ones and the payoff isn't worth it.

 
In the words of frog breeder David Doyle: "DO NOT I repeat, DO NOT culture wild flying fruit flies. They will get loose from cultures and out of the vivariums and will fly up your nose when you are eating dinner. If you live with anyone, they will throw you and your flies out of the house. "

That quote and some more info about fly breeding may be found at http://www.doylesdartden.com/fruitfly.html .

 
If you really did want to start a flying fruit fly culture it is very easy, just put your culture container with the culture media in and place this in a shed, or green house and the flies will be attracted to this and lay their eggs, in no time at all you will have a culture of flying fruit flies.

Either refrigerate them or feeding to nymphs (beware the wake up very quickly not good for multiple feeds), or place the culture container with fruit fly size holes in net lid directly in nymphs cage (containing multiple nymphs).

I always have an open culture container in my bug house, escaped flies use it and also the wild ones, these containers are placed in my nymph nets for a constant supply of food.

It works well but not for individuel!!

 
I agree with them getting loose. At least with the non flying types they only crawl around.

 
I actually spent a lot of effort collecting wild fruit flies because I wanted flying ones. I'm now happily breeding them and haven't had any outbreaks. Haven't quite used them yet because I don't have any mantises small enough.

Anyway, to catch my flies, I had to find out where the fruit flies hang out. Someone happened to have a grapefruit peel outside and I noticed fruit flies near it. I caught some but it wasn't enough. I put more fruits at that area so more flies came. Then, I got myself a nice stable collect. :)

Yes, they fly, just the way I wanted.

 
Meiji said:
In the words of frog breeder David Doyle: "DO NOT I repeat, DO NOT culture wild flying fruit flies. They will get loose from cultures and out of the vivariums and will fly up your nose when you are eating dinner. If you live with anyone, they will throw you and your flies out of the house. "That quote and some more info about fly breeding may be found at http://www.doylesdartden.com/fruitfly.html .
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Heh heh, that happened to me except they didn't fly up my nose and I didn't get trown out of the house, just the flies. :D

 
as everyone else says, plus they gather around compost/recycling bins with smelly grass cuttings etc inside. any rotting veg attracts them not just fruit.

if they get out in the house, use a pooter to get em. they usually sit on top of a culture trying to get in. i dont bother with flightless ones with free ones around. and there gonna get out anyway, flying or not. :p

 
I just take an apple sauce jar. when it has a little bit left in it, I set it outside and within a day or two I have a swarm of ff. just make sure the apple sauce doesnt dry out.

 
idolomantis said:
i,ll join tht club then. and yes i did had FF
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Lol, you guys are lucky. I once had a FF culture with a very tiny hole which FFs ket on flying out of. I didn't know for a week. After a while, I noticed there were not so many FFs in the culture, thats when I found the hole. As I was looking at the hole, a FF flew out and hit me in the face.

 
I started my wild fly culture by mixing mashed bananna and yeast and putting it in the bottom of a empty 2 liter bottle. This attracted a very large number of wild flies, which I left to come and go as they pleased for several days. Once I spotted larvae I put the lid on it. Now I have loads of flies and larvae. They fly and that is an issue, but of you cut feeding holes in the sides of your deli cups just the size of the bottle mouth you simply take the lid off, remove the sponge and connect them together and the lil guys fly right in. My PO nymph loves them.

 
what i use, if i have to catch flies, which is very useful, is an electric fly zapper that i use to temporarily paralyse flies for my mantis.

its shaped like a tenniss racket and holds the flies you zap until you tap them into the cage/tank/cup containing your mantis.

easy peasy :lol:

 
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