New idea for keeping houseflys...

[asdsdf]

I think they stink.....Especially when they start dying. :blink:

 

[Moosashi]

If you order pupae and just keep flies there is no smell... if you try to do a dogfood mash culture be prepared for one of the worst smells known to man. I would suggest just getting fly pupae from mantisplace and when the run out just get somemore.

If I order $25 worth on their site, I get 50 free housefly pupae, but don't you have to hatch those immediately basically? Then the flies last for like 30 days? So every month I will need to place an order for more or else feed it crickets and stuff?

 

[hibiscusmile]

Darkspeed, have u been watching me make fly containers.?, ha ha ha, I have made same setup, This is funny. tomorrow I will take pic of it. ha ha I cannot believe it, I was just telling Jasper about it and that it was almost ready. Mine is a little different though. But it has the hose and everything. ALSO, do not use cedar chips for the flies water or food mix, only use clean wood chips. The cedar will be toxic to them. Good job! Aslo, another tip, make sure the pupae cannot get wet with the water. This is what causes the smell, as long as it is not wet it will not smell, and what little does won't be bad!

 

[Guest_BIGGUN_*]

DARKSPEED,

Could you please post a pic of our setup. I think I understand how you've explained it but a picture's worht a thousand words.

Thanks a ton,

Kevin

You can get the big chamber bottles (Rubbermaid clear plastic w/ white lids) and the small containers (ziplock clear plastic w/blue lids five pack) at walmart in the housewares section. The clear hose is at home depot in the plumbing isle several sizes to choose from. With the new setup, and the bigger cups you can easily put food in one cup, wet cotton balls in the other and pupae in another and link them all to the big chamber by 3/4 hose. I would buy pupae from mantisplace. its alot easier than dealing with maggots. just put them in a warm place and you end up with hundreds of flies in a few days. If you would rather deal with maggots, once you have flies you can culture more by mixing dry dogfood with hot water and a small amount of bakers yeast. put a few inches of the dogfood mash in the bottom of one of those big rubbemaid jars and top it off with some cedar shavings (like the ones in a hamster cage) and the lid (drill some holes in it and put a coffe filter over the mouth of the jar under the lid or cut a big hole and fill with a peice of sponge. regardless it produces hundreds more, and then you have to deal with transporting the pupae from the culture to the fly keeping enclosure,which just consists of putting some cedar shavings and pupae from the culture into one of the ziplock cups and popping it back onto its lid with the clear plastic hose penetrating the lid going to the main chaimber when the hatch the will find their way back to the main chamber and to the other chambers where the food and water is. It is a bit industrious and maybe a few hours work to put it all together, but it certainly works well and keeps the flys happy and long lived. My camera batteries are charging, so ill have some pics up shortly.

 

[darkspeed]

I dont have any pics to speak of...and since my garage was my only place to keep such a foul smelling culture I have not kept any due to the cold. But now it is warmer, and I have mantids large enough to need them, so I will probably start a housefly culture soon. Not to mention I am working on a whole new recipe based on milk as opposed to dogfood. So far my preliminary tests have shown promising results.... for more info on my tests read here:

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?sh...2734&st=20#