I made a fly trap - upon cleaning it today i found a bunch o' fat maggots in there! What do I do with them so they pupate and turn into flies? It would be great to have them hatch out so I can feed them to our many hungry mantis mouths!I was thinkng of putting them in a mantid pot with dog food but don't they need dirt to pupate? Please tell me what to do with them!
Yay Arkanis! If they're not full grown, feed them on powdered, dry dog/cat food miixed with twice their volume of hot water, and stir the mixture as it cools. Before serving it to the maggots add a PINCH ( :lol: ) of dried brewers' yeast (you can also add some wood chips or bits of cardboard) and leave them until they start crawling out of the mess.
I've used this method and several variants of it for a few months; it is based on the instructions provided by SpiderPharm.
If you think, from experience, that the maggots are full grown, just toss 'em, stinky food and all, into a shallow shoe box, and cover the smelly mess with about 1" (2.5cm) of small wood chips that you should be able to get from your pet store (untreated, of course). Since this is the Memorial Day W.E., you may have to improvise and have the kids cut up either coarse excelsior or bits of carboard as a substitute. After they've all pupated, toss in enough flour to absorb any moisture and either sieve or have the kids manually remove them and put them in a ventillated deli pot.
It is not necessary to cover the shoebox to keep the maggots in, but you might want to put on a ventilated lid to keep phorid flies and other pests out.
Let's know how this works out!
