Fly Pupae in Canada?

hysteresis · Feb 16, 2019

Havent been able to find any kind of fly feeder in Canada, only the standard ff cultures, and BSFL.

Any suggestions on acquiring pupae that's ready to go in Canada? Im already trying to pupapte BSFL but I dont know the timeline for development.

Maybe someone on here knows pf someone that ships pupae to The Great White North?

TIA

Teamonger · Feb 19, 2019

I was never able to find any one that sold fly pupa in Canada (and I looked pretty hard). I also ended up breeding BSFs for use in the winter along with crickets. During the summer however you can catch all the flies you could ever want by setting some simple traps made from soda bottles or the like. There are a ton of DIY tutorials both on the forum and on google. I personally found that baiting said traps with regularly changed dog poo (still in its handy pickup bag) was way less disgusting and smelly then rotten meat (I have also heard of people using papertowel soaked in milk). That is assuming you have a dog to help provide you with supplies.... Setting the trap near a garbage can or other nasty site always netted me more flies then I could use.

I also would purposefully throw some meat into my compost bin and harvest the larva when they started crawling out. As the bin was picked up weekly I could be sure it would never get too horrible. I don´t recommend this at all if you do not have compost pickup where you are. Traps are far less gross.

The things we do for our mantises....

hysteresis · Feb 19, 2019

I don't care to breed BSFs at the moment. I am happy enough trying to get them to pupate.

Just not sure I know what i'm doing.

TY for your response!

Teamonger · Feb 21, 2019

There is a life cycle picture that should give you a basic idea of how long they´ll take to pupate.

While I never actually took notice of how long they took as I always had a ton at every stage of development there are a few things I can say that might help you out.

Feed the heck out of them. If you want them to pupate you need to feed them (I tend to use apples and potatoes or whatever I have around the house).
They are getting ready to pupate as they darken. The darker they are the closer to becoming a fly.
They start to move less as they darken. They will start to get stiff in their wiggling and will stop moving all together when they are almost done.
This is likely a no brainer but when sold for reptile food people are told to keep them in the fridge. Don't do this if you want flies.
Keep their container dry. They need dry conditions to pupate properly. Damp or wet substrate might slow the process or even kill them (I don't know that for sure but it seems reasonable). The worms do not require humidity to develop, they are perfectly happy in bone dry conditions for their whole life so long as they are fed.
Again maybe a no brainer, when you buy them make sure to buy the biggest ones they have as they will be further along in development and become flies sooner.
If you want smaller flies you can withhold food. Under fed worms develop into smaller flies but it takes longer. I was able to get flies half the normal size by doing this which was useful for certain instars. I always kept a container of neglected worms for this purpose.