Need to find a good fly gutload

[agent A]

Hey all, I feel like my flies r being inadequately nourished

Now we all know precarious' method of storing adult flies in the fridge, and that works well for them, but I need to figure out a good way to feed them

They don't like fruit juice or crushed up apple stuff

They easily drown in honey or syrup

And my recipe that houseflies love with 2 parts brown sugar 1 part milk really doesnt feed bottle flies and it gets hard and crusty too fast

Any suggestions??

Thanx

 

[aNisip]

Take a bottle cap to like a water bottle or gatorade bottle or something.....take some material that is a mesh (like the covering to those cheap bug containers u see at the dollar store with the rotating lid) cut out a section/strip that can be waded up and fit in the bottle cap not tightly but u also don't want open area in the cap...now add one part honey one part water...mix in the cap (by swirling the mesh too) with tweezers or forceps by grabbing hold of mesh and moving it around until eventually you have a nice honey water mix...DON'T put too much honey and water, u want it fill up about 1/2 of the cap with the mesh basically to the top of the cap, but halfway submerged in the glorious nectar....hope this helps!

 

[patrickfraser]

I just keep mine in a pyramid net cage and drizzle honey on the outside. Just don't drizzle too heavy/thickly or it will run all the way down.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

One drop of pure honey per hole, 5-10 drops per day depending on how many I hatched out in the deli, very very simple and effective way to feed them, and just toss back in fridge if you need to. I keep 2 of these going at a time to make sure I always have as many flies as they need 24/7, maybe 50-75 in each.

The stopper on top makes feeding right out of the deli easy, or the bottle lines up with the hole to feed ones that aren't in Exo's, all my deli's have the same stopper on top to tap stunned flies in.

 

[agent A]

tried that but a lot drowned

would confectioner's sugar work? i should try it!

 

[angelofdeathzz]

Your doing it wrong, I never had one fly drown in well over a million served. One drop on a hole in the lid, they drink it gone right through the screen within 5 min or less?

 

[agent A]

Perhaps my honey is too runny

 

[Rick]

Honey. My adult flies live in 32 oz deli cups set up just like the mantids are. I use a small syringe of honey to squirt a bit each day on top of the foam plug. I use honey from my own bee hive so I know it's good stuff.

 

[agent A]

ok i shall go to the store today and get honey and batteries B)

 

[dlemmings]

Yup I keep BBF in deli cups and feed through the mesh in the lid. a few drops a day for 20+ per delicup...I rotate feeding so the BBF can feast 2-3 days before being fed off. some have argued this is not needed. but having the extra flys helps hedge against those times when there are suddenly no hatched from the pupa. I hate when there is a dry spell and I have to ration the food to 16 hungry mouths (down to 14 now that I unloaded my Creos) but 15-20 L-1 L-2 ghostie babies will be feeding on BBF soon enough.