How to get blue bottle spikes to pupate?

[Charoozz520]

Hey all so I been trying to culture my own blue bottle flies with some success. I used a 32oz container with fruit fly media and dog food and have gotten a good amount of larvae. 
From what I understand once the maggots start crawling towards the top of the container they are ready to pupate. I put the 32oz container inside an old critter keeper bin with a layer of dry cocofiber but it has been two days and I am only seeing one or two pupae and the rest are still crawling all over. Am I doing something wrong? I hate to have gotten so far only to fail if they don't pupae  

 

[MantisGirl13]

Just keep waiting! They'll pupate eventually.

- MantisGirl13

 

[Charoozz520]

@MantisGirl13 thanks, I am going to transfer all the larvae that crawl out into a 32oz container with cocofiber then, the housemates are okay with my hobby but they weren't ecstatic to know some maggots got out through the cracks of the kritter keeper   

 

[MantisGirl13]

Ok! Ya, they'll figure out that maggots got loose once flies start buzzing around!

- MantisGirl13

 

[hysteresis]

My larvae have been pupating easily without a substrate. Ive tried placing larvae and pupae in with moist coco fibre, not so succesful. Dry coco, definitely nothing.

So long as I mist them very lightly I get a few or more per day. I cut up some of the ones that dont eclose, and they're bone dry. I think they do need to be in moist air.

 

[hysteresis]

@Charoozz520 @MantisGirl13 maybe I should feed up my spikes a bit? Maybe that would improve my eclosure rate?

 

[Charoozz520]

My larvae have been pupating easily without a substrate. Ive tried placing larvae and pupae in with moist coco fibre, not so succesful. Dry coco, definitely nothing.

So long as I mist them very lightly I get a few or more per day. I cut up some of the ones that dont eclose, and they're bone dry. I think they do need to be in moist air.

Okay if that is the case I think I will put them into a 32oz container with paper towels and mist lightly. I always thought they needed dry substrate to pupate.

The least smelly option would be dog food, I grabbed the cheapest bag and soak it over night and they were all over it. They ate the fruit fly media I had but wasn't as quick with it as they were with the dog food. 

 

[hysteresis]

Great idea. I'll prolly try that. Or a small test of a couple dozen, with wet fish flakes? Something like that?

I just know that my BSF were drastically different in size and eclosure speed after a good feed.

 

[Charoozz520]

Great idea. I'll prolly try that. Or a small test of a couple dozen, with wet fish flakes? Something like that?

I just know that my BSF were drastically different in size and eclosure speed after a good feed.

Wet fish flake will probably work since they are high in protein, but I think that is pretty expensive in the long run compare to dog food.
I breed BSF last year for my reptiles (before I got into Mantises, will probably try again now since the flies always went to waste but now I can feed them!) and from what I researched and used the cheapest is non medicated chick feed (make sure it's non medicated), not sure if this will work for BB as I think they rely more on protein to develop vs BSF. 

 

[hysteresis]

Cool

 

[Teamonger]

Using the soaked dog food did you get flies to lay eggs or did you have spikes to begin with?

 

[hysteresis]

Funny aside...

I took a couple dozen older spikes and fed them for a day in wet fish flake. Not only did they gorge, but they're pupating nicely. Hopefully they eclose well too!

 

[Charoozz520]

Using the soaked dog food did you get flies to lay eggs or did you have spikes to begin with?

No spikes. They lay eggs, the whole process took about two-two half weeks. I now have my first set of flies emerging from the pupaes I got.  So I use a layer of Josh's frog fruit fly media since it has molt inhibitors and also smells nice and top it with a layer of soaked dog food. In one culture I put a TINY piece of raw chicken and the other I didn't put any and I got eggs and spikes from both culture. The one with the chicken only smelled when I opened it...I think the fruit fly media helped to cover the smell.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Dont forget to use cat food, better as mostly fish and very good for them.

 

[Charoozz520]

Dont forget to use cat food, better as mostly fish and very good for them.

Do you have better results with cat food? I will try this with my next batch. (Does it smell worse than dog food since its more "fishy' ?)

 

[Teamonger]

Do you have better results with cat food? I will try this with my next batch. (Does it smell worse than dog food since its more "fishy' ?)

Not that I've tested this but I would think cat food would be more smelly. Cats are carnivores while dogs are omnivores. While that does not stop the pet food industry from putting all manner of non-meat nonsense into cat food but at least it should have a higher percentage of nice smelly meat goodness then dog food.