questions about fly pupae

[d0rk2dafullest]

just wondering if some bb pupae just will not hatch? does this happen when i leave them refridgerated too long? should i just let all the pupaes just turn into adult and keep them in a container and just pick at them with some tweezers? any advice on how you guys do it small scale, i only have like.....2 orchids, 2 budwings, and 1 giant asian. all nymphs. and my orchids are subadults (off topic, anyone have any orchids who are subadults too? i am willing to do loan for future ooths) well anyways, any help welcome thx all!

 

[hibiscusmile]

I let mine hatch but I only use them for a day, sometimes two. They could be in storage to long, try leavin them out maybe it will take them longer to hatch if too cold to long. I put mine in a ff bottle and just let them hatch and feed from there, I put holes in my containers, the top fits right in, Used to use forcepts to catch em, but once I started with the bottles, well there is no since in going backwards:

}

 

[d0rk2dafullest]

hehe i know what you mean, the mantids love them, seeing the budwings hunt them down is just fascinating.

thx so much for the tip!

 

[Rick]

I store them in the fridge as maggots, not as pupae. I take the number of maggots out I need for a week or so and let them pupate.

 

[ABbuggin]

I store them in the fridge as maggots, not as pupae. I take the number of maggots out I need for a week or so and let them pupate.

Thats exactly what I do. Maggots will keep in the fridge for up to 3 months, pupae will only last 2 weeks at max.

 

[etb99]

Thats exactly what I do. Maggots will keep in the fridge for up to 3 months, pupae will only last 2 weeks at max.

Maybe that depends on how you store them. I just finished the last of a batch of pupae I had in the fridge for 6 weeks.

 

[Birdfly]

I pupate mine in pint/s in the shed were its not to cold, just cool, i pupate them in pots of soil in the summer when its hot as they dont dessicate so easily like this. Then after about two weeks i move them into the greenhouse to hatch as my last hatched pint/s of "flies" will be running short.

They live a long time (two weeks +) if allowed to fly around in good space and feed on diluted honey (they dont get trapped in it to easily when dilluted) and fruit puree/pulp from the juicer. I also believe that they are a much better food when they have developed there flight muscles and have been fed properly.

I dont get many not hatch like this were as i will get a few that dont if i keep them in the fridge for too long or leave them in the pupal stage in too dry/warm an environment.

You could do it for your small amount of mantids by buying a pint for a couple of £/$, keeping the maggots in the fridge to keep them from pupating so quickly, then move small quantities to a warmer place in and airy but not to warm/dry place to go through the pupal stage. If you do move a few to this place every few days you should be able to keep a constant supply of bluebottles/flie sp going indefinately, just remember to buy some more at the right stage.

Flie sp will have different pupal stage duration and temps will also effect how long they take. Other people may have other ways of doing this as there are a few other ways to do it.

Most important to me is to make sure they flie around for a few days and eat well before feeding

 

[rayg]

I'm just starting to get my maggot, pupae, adult rotation going so I can't say much about the storage of pupae, but I will agree that allowing the adults to live and feed for a few days does certainly add to their vigor. I feed mine and equal part mixture or organic sugar and powdered milk. It's clean and dry, but you also have to offer water, I put paper strips in it so they don't drown. Probably alot of the nutrition in the flies comes from what they devoured as maggots, so try to consider that as well.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Escapees are the only ones that last that long around here . I am up to about 3000 of house and bbs a day. And you are right, the maggots nutrition is very important, a lot of people try to breed them using things other than blood and meat, and it really does not work well, the commercial breeders use meat to

breed theirs, and they must know what their doing, I don't of course, and at this point don't really consider that a bad thing

 

[yen_saw]

Hey Becky, you know your maggots well nowadays :lol: can't hate your mantis food

I keep both bluebottle larvae and pupae in the fridge too, but larvae last longer.

 

[rayg]

3000 flies! The incessant buzzzzing! I just have one cage now and I am considering building some kind of sound proof shield box. I can see your point of view about not letting them hang around too long. Like I said , I'm just getting started with raising flies (the Wisconsin winter is immenent) and I'm using the SpiderPharm recipe. Basically rehydrated dog food, yeast, sugar, and fatty oils. I've got to keep the whole process clean and as low key as possible, or the wife may kick them out. I haven't heard any complaints from the maggots yet, but I haven't been doing it long enough to really see what kind off survival rates I get, but I have already gotten a few more tips from this thread.