Mantidae
Member
I've decided to breed wingless FF’s to supplement the PH’s I've fed my mantids. Just received my FF culture and noticed that a bunch of the flies had fallen into the culture and drowned. At this time (and in the future) is this an issue that needs to be addressed, decaying flies in the culture? The culture does include anti-oxidant and mold inhibitor, but I haven’t tried breeding FF’s before and I’m not sure how clean things need to be kept for the best breeding environment.
How soon after becoming adults might I remove the FF's to start another culture, immediately or wait a week between starting new cultures? Although I'm only going to be hatching one mantid egg case, I'd rather have excess flies rather than run out. So I ordered several live cultures to start with and 1.2 kilograms of additional culture mix. I see from reading previous posts that many of you order bulk culture, several pounds at a time. As long as I keep the culture dry what kind of shelf life can I expect on the bulk culture mix?
Concerning the vials that were supplied (about 1.25”diameter x 4”high). Is there an advantage to using larger vials? I’ve noticed some people use deli cups for breeding, any pluses or minuses for them? The smaller ones can contain problems easier since you're only throwing away a small amount of culture and flies if it becomes contaminated. But you’ll need to keep numerous cultures if you want a sufficient supply of FF’s on hand. Larger containers provide an increased breeding area and more flies. Rick, I see you order from Carolina too, how many cultures would you set up to have enough flies on hand in 2 weeks, 4 weeks?
Just looking for some feedback. I assume everyone eventually develops their own techniques for breeding but there generally are do's and don'ts to keep in mind in setting up FF breeders, any insights will be helpful.
TIA, Gus
How soon after becoming adults might I remove the FF's to start another culture, immediately or wait a week between starting new cultures? Although I'm only going to be hatching one mantid egg case, I'd rather have excess flies rather than run out. So I ordered several live cultures to start with and 1.2 kilograms of additional culture mix. I see from reading previous posts that many of you order bulk culture, several pounds at a time. As long as I keep the culture dry what kind of shelf life can I expect on the bulk culture mix?
Concerning the vials that were supplied (about 1.25”diameter x 4”high). Is there an advantage to using larger vials? I’ve noticed some people use deli cups for breeding, any pluses or minuses for them? The smaller ones can contain problems easier since you're only throwing away a small amount of culture and flies if it becomes contaminated. But you’ll need to keep numerous cultures if you want a sufficient supply of FF’s on hand. Larger containers provide an increased breeding area and more flies. Rick, I see you order from Carolina too, how many cultures would you set up to have enough flies on hand in 2 weeks, 4 weeks?
Just looking for some feedback. I assume everyone eventually develops their own techniques for breeding but there generally are do's and don'ts to keep in mind in setting up FF breeders, any insights will be helpful.
TIA, Gus