Should I be concerned???

[agent A]

hello all, someone who lives 2 doors down from me has a lot of black eyed susans, and around the corner of the house where there are no black eyed susan, there is a shed with the sun shining on it

well there were like a dozen bottleflies resting on the shed for some reason

i caught a few so i could feed them to feed to my mantises

I'm worried that maybe they were all on the shed because something toxic attrated them

this person says they dont use chemicals around their yard

but I'm still a little concerned

should i feed my mantises the flies I caught on the shed? I know a family of cats lives under the shed, so maybe there is a dead animal or something

but i know they werent attracted to any flowers or plants, because the shed is away from any plant except for grass and an apple tree

please let me know what you think, am i being overly worried?

thanks!

 

[lunarstorm]

I think you're being overly worried. There's nothing suspicious about a handful of flies resting on a shed in the sun.

 

[agent A]

ok thanks, you make a point,

and i dont think that person would use insecticide at this point of the year

so i will use them, fill them with food and use them

i caught some big ones!

 

[rs4guy]

You are fine to feed them. Flies often rest in the sun to warm up.

 

[patrickfraser]

If worried about insecticides, just hold off for a day or so and feed them with honey to make sure they aren't affected by anything. It is better to have a mantis be hungry for a day or two than be full and dead. I found a nice figeater beetle that was too easy to catch and fed it to one of my shield females. A day later she was acting very strange and the next day she was dead. I raise my own flies now, so I don't have to worry about that any more. :clap:

 

[CoolMantid]

Probally a cat died and the flies are swarming to lay eggs in the dead cat or whatever....

 

[brown]

Just the smell can attract flies to land in the vicinity of an area. If there is a family of cats they can be defecating around the area which attracts flies.