PowerHobo
Well-known member
Definitely starting to think I'm doing something wrong here.
My first order of houseflies was delayed in shipping, and arrived almost entirely hatched out. I put them in a 32oz cup with a moist sugar cube in the bottom and stuck it in the fridge. They lived for a surprisingly long time, and I fed out from that container for probably a month.
My next order had zero hatch. Seller said he thinks an expired batch got sent out somehow and sent me a replacement.
This order arrived with 4 or 5 hatched, and I've had probably 15 more hatch since then (easily half of which have already been dead in the bottom of the cup when I find them). It's been about 3 weeks, so I'm not having a lot of confidence in getting more hatches.
I haven't kept this container in the fridge at all except for 3-4 five-minute periods to grab flies to feed out. It's in a room that's about 72-74f at all times. It's the exact same lid (regular clear deli, about 50 pin holes) as was on the first batch's cup; same style cup. I don't have any sugar cube in this one because I haven't really seen any population of flies to that I'm not immediately going to feed out. I have noticed there's a sort of oily residue on the sides of this cup that has accumulated since the pupae were put inside, not sure what it is, but it's not water condensation (the room is actually very dry).
This is reminding me a lot of the one fruit fly culture I tried (using a guide from here). I only had about 15 D hydei to put in to start, and I forgot to color the media so I couldn't really see the larvae, but there is a ton of dark brown pupae all up the sides of the cup and on the excelsior... none of which ever hatched (it's been like 3 months, but I'm a disgusting human being and have never thrown it away). The media never dried out, so I don't think they desiccated, but I'm just not sure.
Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong? My ghosties are too big for fruit flies, but not quite big enough to confidently take on small dubias.
My first order of houseflies was delayed in shipping, and arrived almost entirely hatched out. I put them in a 32oz cup with a moist sugar cube in the bottom and stuck it in the fridge. They lived for a surprisingly long time, and I fed out from that container for probably a month.
My next order had zero hatch. Seller said he thinks an expired batch got sent out somehow and sent me a replacement.
This order arrived with 4 or 5 hatched, and I've had probably 15 more hatch since then (easily half of which have already been dead in the bottom of the cup when I find them). It's been about 3 weeks, so I'm not having a lot of confidence in getting more hatches.
I haven't kept this container in the fridge at all except for 3-4 five-minute periods to grab flies to feed out. It's in a room that's about 72-74f at all times. It's the exact same lid (regular clear deli, about 50 pin holes) as was on the first batch's cup; same style cup. I don't have any sugar cube in this one because I haven't really seen any population of flies to that I'm not immediately going to feed out. I have noticed there's a sort of oily residue on the sides of this cup that has accumulated since the pupae were put inside, not sure what it is, but it's not water condensation (the room is actually very dry).
This is reminding me a lot of the one fruit fly culture I tried (using a guide from here). I only had about 15 D hydei to put in to start, and I forgot to color the media so I couldn't really see the larvae, but there is a ton of dark brown pupae all up the sides of the cup and on the excelsior... none of which ever hatched (it's been like 3 months, but I'm a disgusting human being and have never thrown it away). The media never dried out, so I don't think they desiccated, but I'm just not sure.
Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong? My ghosties are too big for fruit flies, but not quite big enough to confidently take on small dubias.
