Blue Bottle Flies Help!!!!

[Texas Panther Man]

Ok so I ordered about 500 bb flies from mantis place earlier this month. They were shipped on the 20th of Dec. So I just got em today. Of course all the damn things have hatched/pupated already. So what can I do now? I mean how long will they live after becoming flies? I bought the cups and food etc... to raise them but I expected to get spikes/maggots not flies.
I dont see how Im going to feed them all off before they die because Ive only got 4 chams at the moment. Is there any way to keep them alive and prolong their life span? Like colder temps or something?

 

[Ace]

ask "colorcham427" or go check the classifieds and he has some info while selling BB flies at the moment

hope this helps

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Thanks. It was a help. I found out I have about 4 weeks to feed em all off.

 

[Cainschams]

Ive had flies last quite a long time in the fridge. I also had about 500 that turned to flies last night LOL!! I just keep them in the fridge and pull out however many I am going to feed off the next day and let them warm up and eat. They have lasted well over a month for me in the fridge as flies. Actually longer than the maggots or pupae.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Thanks Jared. I was worried that I had to feed off 500 in a week or so. Ive only got 4 adults at the moment so I was wondering how that was going to work. But if I've got 4-5 weeks thats plenty of time to feed em off.

Although i looked and a bunch of mine died in transit. I guess the cold weather froze the poor things. They were shipped out on the 20th and I just got em this afternoon.

 

[pssh]

I bet they would go crazy for 500! I usually throw in at least 25 at a time and the chameleons are literally running around zapping bugs for an hour or two. They would eat and run around more if I gave them more flies. Even my pygmies walk around hunting for and eating them. I've never seen a pygmy run

 

[Texas Panther Man]

I needed to add some variety. My crew was slowing down for the winter. So I thought I'd give em some flies to get their appetiites going. Plus I dont want em to get burned out on cricks and dubias. I usually collect hoppers and katydids as enrichment feeders but with the low temps we've had I decided to try flies.

 

[pssh]

Butterworms! They last in the fridge for forever so you dont have to worry about feeding them off in X amount of days. It's more like in X amount of months.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

I have tried those yrs ago. I havent given them a go lately. I can gutload them just like supers right?

 

[pssh]

No, not really. They only eat a host plant which grows in Chile. You could probably find one in the US, but it's kind of pointless. They are high in calcium and relatively low in fat anyways without the plant for a while. They get squishy when they are pretty much spent and about to die, so you know which are better.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Ok thanx. I may try those next. Crix and dubias are my staples and I like to mix in a cpl more here and there. It can be hard to find bugs that you can keep for any extended period due too most bugs short life spans. Having only a handful of chams I sometimes end up tossing out feeders that die of old age. So those sound like an option for me.

 

[Manik6]

get a beardie. youll never have that problem again. lol!

 

[Texas Panther Man]

I've thought about it actually. lol Mainly so i could have more of a touchy feely lizard and then the chams for looking only. But actually I have more chams on the way if the darn winter weather will ever break long enuff to get em here. So I'll have more mouths to feed and hopefully less waste.