Houseflies not hatching corerctly

[swords]

Hey guys a week or so ago I got some housefly pupae and they are not hatching correctly, out of 10-15 pupae I usually get only 1 - 4 to hatch and half of them usually are stuck half in/half out their shell. Any idea what's going wrong? I am using new/unused 32 oz fruit fly culture cups with fabric screen lids to hatch the houseflies outside the mantis enclosures just like I do with Blue Bottles which seems to go smoothly as longa s the pupae are viable. Temps are 70-85*F. Should I mist the hatch bins to provide humidity? I've tried this once or twice and the pupae just sit in water, probably further inhibiting hatching but i get no better results in dry conditions.

 

[PhilinYuma]

You are buying these, right? Generally, they don't have a fridge life of over two weeks, even less if your fridge is close to 32F. Sometimes, too, you just get a bad batch. Don't get them wet; they are used to hatching in a dry environment where they won't get moldy. Next time you buy some, you might try putting 250 (5G) in a 12"net cube with a jar lid containing dry milk/buttermilk and sugar and some moss soaked in water (they are so dumb that they will drown in a bowl of mater) and maybe put a little honey on the top of the net. If you mist them regularly, they should last a few weeks in there. Good luck.

 

[swords]

Yes, I'm ordering them cos I don't know if I could stand a smelly bucket of maggots in my house even though breeding my own would be far cheaper, the convenience of pupae is nice too.

I've been measuring the temp in my fridge and it's 44*F where I keep the pupae (next to the yogurt of course! LOL) My BB pupae lasted 4 weeks but are shot now. I have more BBs coming in Friday's mail I hope they hatch as well as the first batch did. Perhaps the houseflies were just a bunk load. There shouldn't be any difference in hatching HFs vs BBs should there?

I've been using the 32 oz bug cups to hatch them in rotation cos I can pop the cups in the freezer and knock the flies down for feeding them out with tongs. How do you feed active flies out of a huge 12" cube?

Also, should I feed more than one fly every other day? All my mantids have fat bottoms with their one BB every other day but sometimes they act like they're trying to catch flies from the other enclosures even after they've just eaten and look like their abdomens could burst if they ate another, maybe that can't actually happen?

 

[hibiscusmile]

Sometimes the weather in shipping will hurt them, but should still have some hatch. I have a customer that has started to request the pupae be put in the fruit fly bottles, he orders 3 bottles and I divide the pupae up into the three bottles, he says they may hatch in shipping and are alive when he gets them, then he cuts another hole in the fruit fly bottle and coats a plug with some honey and they feed there too. Never tried it, but he swares by it. Also what age are your mantis? A lot of them can handle two or more bbs and a few house flies. But if they look fat, then u must be feeding them good. But I like to feed mine every day. When I get a fly stuck in the shell, I just pull them out, it is fun to feel them pop!

Also when I get my maggots (30000) my order is up to, I sift them out of their old sawdust that smells really bad of ammonia and sometimes they start to go thru the holes, and the best part of having to work with them is taking the forceps and pulling them out, it feels really weird and is much fun,,,,,but

I digress.

 

[swords]

I don't know how to tell their exact age but none are adults yet. I think the ghosts are L5 or L6. None of them have wings but probably will next time they molt cos they're about 2" long each, the female is slightly longer. The spiny flowers are all about 3/4" or so tall, maybe L3/L4? They're so small I can't see the segments on their abdomens to try and sex them. Once they've eaten the spiny's look like they have a spikey pea strapped to their butts but I'm afraid they would not be able to distend enough to eat another big BB or even a smaller HF but I can see them swatting at flies in adjacent terrariums as if they'd like to eat another. will they quit a meal 1/2 way through if they're totally full? I would hate to overfeed them and kill them with kindness.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I dont think u can do that with the few flies, u should be ok with a couple more for them.

 

[swords]

OK, maybe I'll try two in each and see how they do. They seemed to really enjoy the crickets this week and now that I had some houseflies hatch en masse today (whew) they didn't all eat them! LOL