How to breed house flies: need help!

[Prayingmantisqueen]

Okay guys so I need help breeding my house flies from Mantisloverguy6000.

I half of the pupae in an old lid in a previous mantid home surrounded by wet paper towel and fruit (but pupae are dry in lid) about 9-10 have hatched in this container. Is this good? Any changes? @mantisloverguy6000 I don't have a net cage so I am trying my best!

The other half of pupae  I will feed out of.

 

[agent A]

i would have 25-30 adults in a cage for breeding

offer wet tissue and fruit slices

adults should congregate on lid of cage

in 5 days you will notice mating

at this point you can put small petris of milk-sodden tissue in the cage for oviposition, replacing daily and keeping egg substrate moist

 

[Prayingmantisqueen]

i would have 25-30 adults in a cage for breeding

offer wet tissue and fruit slices

adults should congregate on lid of cage

in 5 days you will notice mating

at this point you can put small petris of milk-sodden tissue in the cage for oviposition, replacing daily and keeping egg substrate moist

I am letting them hatch in there and so far 10 or so have hatched. I will not be taking from this for feeding so on a couple days there should be plenty.

I offered fruit slices and wet tissue.

They do congregate on the lid so that's good.

So after they lay eggs on the milky tissue I remove it daily and put more. Where do i put the used stuff? In ts own cage with coco fiber substrate?

Thanks for the help!

 

[agent A]

the tissue should go atop some larva media and a fresh tissue added to fly cage

media is oat bran with yeast moistened with a little bit of molasses dissolved in water. dont over wet the bran, just enough for it to be a bit sticky

 

[agent A]

@Prayingmantisqueen

 

[Prayingmantisqueen]

Thanks @mantisloverguy6000 that helps! I am a slow learner sometimes.

 

[MantisGirl13]

That is really interesting! I think that I may try culturing houseflies sometime too! Does the same method work for blue bottles?

- MantisGirl13

 

[agent A]

That is really interesting! I think that I may try culturing houseflies sometime too! Does the same method work for blue bottles?

- MantisGirl13

idk. they need dead flesh to oviposit, so maybe i'll try moving larvae or eggs to the hf media after

 

[MantisGirl13]

idk. they need dead flesh to oviposit, so maybe i'll try moving larvae or eggs to the hf media after

If they need dead meat to oviposit, wouldn't that mean the larvae need to eat the dead flesh?

- MantisGirl13

 

[Synapze]

On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is the odor? 

 

[agent A]

On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is the odor? 

not sure. i have no sense of smell

 

[agent A]

If they need dead meat to oviposit, wouldn't that mean the larvae need to eat the dead flesh?

- MantisGirl13

a lot of insect larvae will eat artificial food or use cues to feed that aren't the same as oviposition cues. moth larvae will eat artificial diet but females won't lay on it

 

[Graceface]

We've been culturing curly wing flies successfully here. I feed them a powdered sugar, masa, powdered milk combo. For ovipositing, we use wheat bran, powdered milk and alfalfa meal. We've been trying to breed blue bottles on the same medium with varied results. Temp and humidity have been harder to control in the winter time and the flies haven't been doing as well this week. I also ran low on blue bottles and had to abandon their breeding for a week or 2 to feed them all to mantises. 

Smell isn't too bad, at least not as bad as I thought from what I've heard and read. Larvae cups stink like ammonia or urine, adult fly tank is a bit musty smelling. We keep it in a powered shop so the house won't smell

Im hoping the blue bottles will breed for us. Flies are tricky and can be very choosy about ovipositing 

 

[Prayingmantisqueen]

Wow. Alot of info here. So @mantisloverguy6000 you might make another video in a few days? If so thats great!

 

[agent A]

Wow. Alot of info here. So @mantisloverguy6000 you might make another video in a few days? If so thats great!

what would the video cover?

 

[MantisGirl13]

@Graceface How big are curly winged flies? I have never really heard of them before.

- MantisGirl13

 

[Prayingmantisqueen]

@mantisloverguy6000 idk... you said you wouldn't be able to cover the whole process because your current flies weren't old enough to mate and oviposit.. So IDK!?!

 

[agent A]

@mantisloverguy6000 idk... you said you wouldn't be able to cover the whole process because your current flies weren't old enough to mate and oviposit.. So IDK!?!

i can do a follow up

 

[Graceface]

@Graceface How big are curly winged flies? I have never really heard of them before.

- MantisGirl13

Curly wing flies are house flies that mutated to have curled wings. They can't fly, but they can glide and hop.