Flightless Fruit Fly Question

[Woodinville]

I just got my first order of fruit flies for my baby brevs. They came in a tall deli-type container filled with string or hemp or something, with goop at the bottom. The flies are swarming throughout. What do I do with them as far as keeping them alive? Do I just keep them in the deli container for their life span, and dump them into the brev terrarium as I need them? I guess I'm also confused as to what a "fly culture" is. Thanks for any advice. Tim

 

[Julirs]

Yep-just keep them in the culture-it is self sustaining. Now what will happen over time is that the colony will lay eggs, and you will see the tiny-yellowish maggots clinging to the lower sides of the container before they fully develop. Eventually they will deplete their food supply. If you order culure starters, you can just start a new colony by dumping 50 of the flies into the new culture before the old one dies out.

 

[Woodinville]

Perfect, thanks. That sounds easy enough. Another question, and Julie, maybe you can answer this: the crickets can't climb the plexiglass tank, but I have a feeling the flies will be able to? Any advice on avoiding escapes? I'm sure they are small enough to get thru the slatted top of this temporary plastic terrarium that I have the brevs in.

 

[nick barta]

Perfect, thanks. That sounds easy enough. Another question, and Julie, maybe you can answer this: the crickets can't climb the plexiglass tank, but I have a feeling the flies will be able to? Any advice on avoiding escapes? I'm sure they are small enough to get thru the slatted top of this temporary plastic terrarium that I have the brevs in.

Tim,

Don't worry about escapees, you probably got flightless flies, very few if any will escape, and without fruit will die fast enough you won't even notice them. I once kept 40 cultures going and opened and fed off hundreds every day without a problem.

As they get bigger you might want to try houseflies or larger blue bottle flies, you get more food per insect, and the movement of a flying insect puts the food near the chameleon. I always have some blue bottle flies, I can give you some to try, I am in Puyallup.

Nick

 

[Billy Quan]

Perfect, thanks. That sounds easy enough. Another question, and Julie, maybe you can answer this: the crickets can't climb the plexiglass tank, but I have a feeling the flies will be able to? Any advice on avoiding escapes? I'm sure they are small enough to get thru the slatted top of this temporary plastic terrarium that I have the brevs in.

A little Vaseline around the top of the enclosure keeps hissing roaches from climbing out, i suppose it would work for flightless flies as well. . . though Vaseline might be too sticky; maybe a non perishable cooking oil?

 

[Dez]

I use olive oil around the top of my baby tank. It works pretty well but have to reapply it after a few days

 

[kearth]

Another good way is to place a piece of fruit in a lid or small bowl in the bottom of teh enclosure.
The fruit flies will be attracted to it and should mainly stay close to it.

ANother good thing with that is the fruit can lay eggs in the fruit while in the tank. The maggots will hatch out and start cruising around. I have seen frogs sit around the dish of fruit and pick off the maggots as they got to the top.

Might help the babies having something extra to eat