Fly Maggots in my FF Cultures

[SkittishMale]

This summer, I have noticed fly maggots in my ff cultures. The maggots were noticeably larger than ff maggots and were around a centimeter long. I am wondering how did the flies manage to lay eggs in my cultures without getting in? I assume that maybe they were laying eggs right by where I have paper towel in the ventilation holes and upon hatching, the maggots crawled down into the culture.

I am unsure of the species of fly and I don't know if its feeding on the culture media or the expired ff's that lay in the bottom or maybe both.

When I learn more about these flies, I am interested in letting them take over a culture so I can breed my own flies for larger mantids. I will then isolate the flies into their own culture and viola! Have my own fly culture.

 

[furrymanmarbles]

If they are houseflies and they do take over that culture will stink.Bad! I tend to buy my houseflys because the culture smells worse than a cricket colony at least in my experience but maybe that doesn't bother you in which case go for it.

 

[Aryia]

Is it the actual maggots that smell bad? I thought the only bad smelling part was the decaying meat associated with *getting them into the mood*. I've heard of some breeders who managed to come up with a "free-of-decaying-meat-smell" formula that works and they're the same deal as fruitflies, just bigger. Though, never gotten around to trying it yet!

 

[furrymanmarbles]

Maybe they have something out there now but I tried it the old fashion way and I couldn't deal with the smell I dumped the colony outside, but if there's a smell free one I'm ready to start a colony.