Does anyone have any experiance raising flys? I bought some maggots at our local bait shop and tried to hatch them. Leaving them at room temp, they changed into a pupae in two days. About 3 weeks later, 4 or 5 hatched and turned out to be very large black flys that would be excellent for a feeder. No more would hatch however or couldn't get free from the shell. Sorry if my terminology is wrong, I'm not at all familiar with this. I waited a few weeks more and then opened the remaining shells. Almost all of them contained a complete fly but dead and withered. A few of the flys got their heads out but could not free themselves. Should I put them in some sort of media that's slightly moist? Would this help them to get out of the shells? Any info like temperature or length of time would be greatly appreciated. Also, if anyone knows who sells these online, I'm not talking about the little flightless fruitflys or curly wings. Something at least as large as a housefly. The maggot's I did hatch were about twice the size of a housefly. Thanks for any info. David
Fly pupae
- Thread starter dectr6
- Start date
THANK YOU PEDRO!!! This site has exactly what I'm looking for. I've spent over 2 hours on google looking for something like this and never ran across it. I'm ordering the bot flies now, I think that's what I'm trying to hatch right now. The ones they show are huge. Thanks again. David
lele
Avid Member
didn't look into the site mentioned, but does sound like a moisture problem. I rear a lot of insects (besides feeders) and dessication is the most common cause of ending a life cycle before its time 
grubco.com and skipio.com both sell fly pupae and larvae in quantity so you may want to check prices. skipio is about $7/lb shipped.
have fun!
grubco.com and skipio.com both sell fly pupae and larvae in quantity so you may want to check prices. skipio is about $7/lb shipped.
have fun!
Thanks lele, I'll check out both sites right now. Mantisplace.com has the large blue bottle fly pupae for about six dollars for 500 I think. Going back to my problem with the pupae hatching, the maggots I bought at the bait store are also blue bottle fly I think. They look identical to the pics on mantisplace. They pupate in one or two days at room temp, should I put them in some type of slightly moist media? How many days should I expect them to start hatching? Should I leave them at room temp or higher? Thanks for your input, I'm signing off and checking out those sites now. Thanks again. David
dodolah
Retired Moderator
i put pupae in a insect cup (like one of those sites sell).
put some substrate. and moist paper towel.
Let it stand on room temperature. by 2 - 3 days, you'll hear them buzzing.
(I live in South California. So, I definitely have no need for heating the temp for flies..)
AFH
Avid Member
Here's a good fly food recipe I got from Kammerflage:
Since the flies emerge with empty stomachs, you will want to "gut-load" the flies to make them nutritious for your chameleons. You can mix a soft-boiled egg (mashed to a smooth consistency) with a few teaspoons of plain yogurt, baby rice cereal and some honey.
Just make sure it's pretty thick and sticky and smear some on the side of the fly container. I made my first batch too liquidy and drowned almost all of my flies and pupae!
BTW, does anyone have a good technique for preserving fly pupae to make them hatch over a more spread out time period?
AFH
Since the flies emerge with empty stomachs, you will want to "gut-load" the flies to make them nutritious for your chameleons. You can mix a soft-boiled egg (mashed to a smooth consistency) with a few teaspoons of plain yogurt, baby rice cereal and some honey.
Just make sure it's pretty thick and sticky and smear some on the side of the fly container. I made my first batch too liquidy and drowned almost all of my flies and pupae!
BTW, does anyone have a good technique for preserving fly pupae to make them hatch over a more spread out time period?
AFH
