Winter is fast approaching

[meaganelise9]

So up until now, I've had a fairly easy time catching a variety of bugs for the kiddos. In fact, it's been nice having to get back out into nature and look closely at things. But as the weather gets colder in stupid Wisconsin, the bugs are slim pickin's. How do you guys deal with not having bees and other flying insects around except the bugs you can purchase from stores? And do you have a favorite place to order feeder bugs from online?

 

[gripen]

i go to petco for crix and fruit flies.

 

[Psychobunny]

I order all my feeders online.

My personal favorite place to get ff's is Josh's Frogs. For roaches, it's "roaches R Us.com", and cricks

I get from a few places.

I freaked out this morning because it is getting cool here too.

This morning, I got out of bed, it was 69F! I like to keep the room temp at about 78 in the living

room were my mantids are, but it was 69F.

So I turned the heat on to warm the house up.

Of course, they are all on Bean Farm UTH's at 90F, so the ones closest to the heat sorce will not

get cold.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

I use Mantisplace.com for house flies and BB's.

 

[patrickfraser]

I raise my own

 

[massaman]

For most of my mantids I can go out and catch small and larger flies that cling to the bark of trees and can find alot of them when things are slim and if your in any areas with trees thats one thing you can do and use deli cups to hold the flies till you can get them to the mantids in question as I use empty deli cups to catch and hold flies and other insects till I am ready to feed the mantids as soon as they are caught and some do escape but not hard to capture them again in my apartment but depending where you keep them and all and does not hurt to check outside esp on cool or mild days as flies tend to be in mass numbers clingling to trees and what not and I purchase my fruit flies from joshs frogs being they never disappoint me that much!

 

[twolfe]

Psychobunny & Massaman, have you had problems with mites in the cultures from Josh Frogs? When I received my only ff order from them, I had so many mites in one culture that I tossed it without ever using it. I am happy with the terrariums, frogs and other supplies from Josh Frogs.

Meaganelise9, it's too bad Madison isn't closer to the Twin Cities! Some of my mantids prefer bees over flies, and they will miss them over the winter. I try to keep my own fruit fly cultures going, and I buy my flies from Grubco and mantisplace.com.

 

[agent A]

at this time of the year here, i can catch dozens of hooverflies on black eyed susan

on warm days, bottleflies also like the flowers and are also in large numbers around yew trees

 

[massaman]

nope never had mite problems on any cultures I ordered from them!

 

[meaganelise9]

Thanks folks. Winter is pretty bleak here. Haha maybe I should make friends with a beekeeper.

 

[PhilinYuma]

Patrick makes a good point. I just doubled up the fly food on two plastic 64 oz storage boxes already containing food and maggots to make four. No smell, i acn store two in a single cube and there will be a week's supply by the end of the week. Patrick and I have both posted our method on the forum in the past. I use 6 cups of ground cat food with 25+% protein and a cup of brewer's yeast and a tablespoon of Paraben, add water and wood chips, and that's it. Patrick's is even simpler, so consider giving it a try. And remember, when you breed flies, you're never alone

 

[meaganelise9]

Hahah thanks. I've got most of that stuff around the house too.

 

[meaganelise9]

Patrick makes a good point. I just doubled up the fly food on two plastic 64 oz storage boxes already containing food and maggots to make four. No smell, i acn store two in a single cube and there will be a week's supply by the end of the week. Patrick and I have both posted our method on the forum in the past. I use 6 cups of ground cat food with 25+% protein and a cup of brewer's yeast and a tablespoon of Paraben, add water and wood chips, and that's it. Patrick's is even simpler, so consider giving it a try. And remember, when you breed flies, you're never alone

Wait.. what the heck kind of cat food only has 25% protein? That's awful cat food.

 

[PhilinYuma]

I did say, 25+% !

The food i am using now is called "Cat Food" (!) by Shoppers [sic] Value, and it has a "guaranteed minimum crude protein of 27%"

But the flies don't mind, honest, especially since i am adding 16+% brewer's yeast!

 

[lunarstorm]

My cats would cry if I started feeding their food to flies (hrm - something to try someday?) And I had to peek at our vet recommended cat food and was glad to see that it's > 25% as it costs a small fortune. heh

If I ever raise flies it'll be with the Shoppers Value Choice OnSale-BlueLight-Generica with 25%+ protein. But it makes me wonder... If I bought the absolute *cheapest*, easily obtainable cat fly food I can find, would the resulting flies display any noticeable difference?

 

[Psychobunny]

Psychobunny & Massaman, have you had problems with mites in the cultures from Josh Frogs? When I received my only ff order from them, I had so many mites in one culture that I tossed it without ever using it. I am happy with the terrariums, frogs and other supplies from Josh Frogs.

Meaganelise9, it's too bad Madison isn't closer to the Twin Cities! Some of my mantids prefer bees over flies, and they will miss them over the winter. I try to keep my own fruit fly cultures going, and I buy my flies from Grubco and mantisplace.com.

Hmmm, no, I have never had a problem with anything from Josh's. In fact, he starts the plain culture kits before he ships

them were it says on his web site that the buy has to provide the ff's to start the culture going.

For some reason, his last longer!! maybe it's what he puts in the media, I dont know!!??

 

[joshsfrogs]

Tammy,

Judging by your order date (June) and your shipping choice (2 day service) I'm guessing your culture got cooked in transit so the mites took it over. We only guarantee live arrival with 2nd day shipping options when your temps are below 85 degrees. Hotter than that, and it usually cooks the flies.

Grain mites (little white mites) are in all fruit fly cultures and most every grain product in your house (you eat tons of them in your cereal). They "take over" when the fruit flies aren't able to out-compete them.

Fruit Fly mites are red/brown and are what are called "predatory mites". They are specific to fruit fly pupae and eat the inside of the pupae resulting in cultures with lots of pupae, but nothing ever hatching.

Then, there are mites that attack plants (like spider mites) and mites that attack animals (like the mites you find on reptiles).

Anyways, Tammy, please give us another chance with the weather warming up. I think you will see why we do more 32 oz fruit fly cultures than anyone else.

 

[hibiscusmile]

humm, Hi josh! I also ordered from you before and the mites were really huge! See your post for "other feedback" a few of us have posted to it. We love ya Josh, but not your flies! :tt2: ps, before Rick sees you here, please post in introduction forum.

 

[kmsgameboy]

So up until now, I've had a fairly easy time catching a variety of bugs for the kiddos. In fact, it's been nice having to get back out into nature and look closely at things. But as the weather gets colder in stupid Wisconsin, the bugs are slim pickin's. How do you guys deal with not having bees and other flying insects around except the bugs you can purchase from stores? And do you have a favorite place to order feeder bugs from online?

Like you I catch wild prey for my mantids. I used to just get them in the spring and summer and keep them until they died and just didnt keep any during the cold months but now I raise Lobster Roaches and can keep the buggies year round. I have actually enjoyed the roaches. I find them interesting to watch since they always move around and even noticed they have social habbits. My adult Lobsters will stop and bend their bodies so that their wings stick up and other roaches will climb up to them and clean under the wings. I find Lobsters a good choice because they breed at a nice rate giving you all shapes and sizes and have more "meat" in them than some other roaches. Some people dont like that they can climb but I find this to be a plus when they are in a mantis enclosure. If you want some or have any questions you can PM me.