Yike! HELP!! is there a trick to this!!??

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Psychobunny

Psychobunny

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Okay, got a large container of fruit flies with the culture stuff.

There are like a zillion of them crawling around in there.

How the heck do I remove the right amount to dump into my mantis jars w/o having a bunch

of them escape?!

Will they go dormant if I put them in the fridge?

What is the trick to this feeding thing?

 
I use a small vial and cut a hole the same width of the vial into the fruit fly container. I also cut the same size hole in the mantid's containers. The holes get plugged with a sponge or cottonball when they are not in use. Sometimes it helps when I wrap a rubber band around the vial to form a kind of seal when it is in the holes.

I just unplug my ff hole and pop the vial in, tap the needed amount, cap vial with finger or cap, replug hole, unplug mantid container hole, unplug vial opening, pop in vial, drop in flies, replug mantid container hole. Then I am done. :p

I hope that wasn't too confusing. :mellow:

The flies will go to sleep when chilled, but too much and they will die. I don't have to chill mine with my feeding method. :D

There are other ways to do it, but mine works for me.

Sometimes, I am able to just unplug my ff container and tap flies into an open container, but it has to be quick, and doesn't work if there are mantids hanging close to the opening. :lol:

 
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Assuming that the bottom substrate isn't sticky, I just tap the jar multiple times to make them all fall to the bottom. The ones that try to climb up the sides will just fall back down...and during this time, that's when I grab the amount of fruit flies I want to use. Or, while continuously tapping the jar, you can just pour the amount you want out (like how you would poor dirt out of a jar).

 
Ntsees said:
Assuming that the bottom substrate isn't sticky, I just tap the jar multiple times to make them all fall to the bottom. The ones that try to climb up the sides will just fall back down...and during this time, that's when I grab the amount of fruit flies I want to use. Or, while continuously tapping the jar, you can just pour the amount you want out (like how you would poor dirt out of a jar).
Click to expand...
I forgot to mention the much needed constant tapping. :eek:

 
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Yes tapping the jar to make them go where you want or simply to stun them works very well.

I came acroos a tv documentary about fruitflies genetic studies and I was amused to see scientists tapping on jar to contain or handle fruitflies.I think they have at least a master degree in science but could not find a better way ! :lol:

 
But this ff container is big! the lid is like 4'' accross and it's about 8'' tall!!

I guess I could open the mantis jar, tap the ff container so they all fall to the bottom,

then just dump some in very quickly!?

This is not going to be much fun!! I just hope some of the ff substrate doesnt fall out!!

The bottom has the culture layers, so it's kind of solid, then there is the stuff that looks

like a ball of wooden "hair" on top the culture stuff.

It was easy when I had the vials of ff's. I could tap them in pretty easy.

Also, I have one nymph that likes to hang upside down on the lid of his jar, so when I open it,

he makes a run for it and I have to catch him. LOL!!

(he's pretty fast too!!)

 
Ha!!!

I am so smart I make my own self sick!!!

I cut a round hole in the lid of the ff container with a Exacto knife and stuffed a foam rubber plug in it

which I saved from my last vial!!

Now all I have to do is remove the plug, and sprinkle some ff's into my mantis jars!!

Pretty smart, huh!!??

Found out it's easy to just put the open end of a tube over the hole (after removing the plug), alow some ff's

to crawl up into the tube, then plug both tube and ff culture container.

Now I have a nice tube of ff's I can tap into the jars!! problem solved due to my genius!!! ;)

 
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A very wide-mouth funnel will save you lots of time and grief. I don't even bother with the feeding hole in the FF lid, anymore. I give the FF cup a solid tap on the desk (so they all fall off the lid), then open and shake vigorously over the funnel. You need to close the lid and tap in any stays hanging on to the funnel edges, or they'll eventually crawl back out.

The funnel thing also serves to plug the hole of the enclosure while feeding. Keeps and mantids, and previously delivered flies from escaping.

The viscosity (did I get that word right?) of the FF medium can be a problem as well. If it's to watery, it will ooze over your flies when tapping.

 
if my mantid is not on the lid or i can get it to go down for a bit, i always just open the FF jar a wee bit so theres just a crack and tap some into the enclosure until theres enough for the mantid. of course you should also tap the FF culture on your desk and make sure theyre not all on the lid before you open it. its probably the simplest and quickest way to get them into your mantids enclosure, but doesnt allow for very much control over exactly how many flies end up with your mantid. that would depend on how big the crack is when you open the lid, how hard you tap the jar over your mantids container, and how many flies manage to crawl up to the opening when your tapping. it works and is way simple but ive found myself putting way too many flies in with my mantid on more than one occasion. will probably try cutting the hole next time sounds like it will make it easier to control the amount of flies i put in. thanks for all the different techniques you guys never even knew there were other ways to do this! lol

 
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My 32 oz cultures have a hole in the side that is plugged with a foam plug. I have a small funnel. I first use a fruit fly vial to put the flies in because that is easier to use than the big 32 oz container. So I put the funnel into the vial and tap the flies from the 32 culture container into the vial. Picking up the assembly and tapping it will keep the few flies that dont go down the funnel from crawling out. Once I get what I need into the vial I plug the vial with a foam plug and also plug the culture. I can then use the funnel to transfer flies into the individual mantis containers which are also 32 oz containers. It sounds hard but it is very easy and works well.

 
I thought of something else.

All the electricity was out in my part of the world all day Sunday due

to the stupid storm, so I had nothing better to do!!

So, I have a round hole in the lid of my ff culture container, and a foam

rubber plug over it.

Now I have a tube, about 3'' long, closed on one end, with a threaded top.

I cramed a piece of sponge down in the bottom of the tube nice and tight, so

it wont fall out.

Then, I put about 4 drops of apple cider vinagar on the sponge, take the foam

plug out of the ff container (first I tap it several times to get the ff's off

the lid.

Then I place the tube upside down with the opening covering the hole in the lid.

The sent of the vinagar attracts the ff's in seconds, and I can collect as many

as I want.

Then I quickly cap the tube and put the foam stopper back on the lid.

If I do it right, I do not get a single escapee!! :)

Then it's easy to just tap as many ff's as you want into the mantis jar :)

This method works very well :)

 
Joey said:
I just put my ff in the freezer for a minute then suck them up with a bit of tube with fabric in the middle. Works a treat!!
Click to expand...
I have heard that it's very easy to accedently kill the ff's by putting them in the freezer.

That was my first thought to try until I read about that.

I dont know if it's true or not.

Finding true stuff on the net is a bit tricky ;)

 

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