Re: culturing houseflies (LONG)

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: Somebody passed this on to me, I forgot who or I would give them the credit: : : So, I breed M. domesticus, the common house fly. These flies lay eggs, : unlike some of the bigger, shiny green or blue flies (I have no idea about : their English name) who give birth to live larvae. Common house flies can : live up to 3 months, but in breeding colonies it's best to keep them for 1 : month maximum, because egg production falls drastically after thet. They are : sexually meture at 5-10 days of age, and females are capable of laying : 1000-1200 eggs, about a hundred a time, in every 3 days. To start a good : breeding colony, you need about 50 to 100 flies. : To breed them you need at least 3 containers. One for the adults, where they : can mate and lay their eggs, one for hatching the eggs, and one for raising : larvae. The third one is the smelly part... : 1. ADULT FLIES: I keep them in 10 litre (2.5 gallon) glass jars. These jars : were originally produced for people who think they can eat 10 litres of : pickles / preserves. I can get these jars quite cheap at the grocery store. : I use wet sawdust or wood shavings as substrate. I cover the top of the jar : with double or triple layer of gauze. Ideal temp for the flies is anywhere : between 20 to 30 ?C. At a lower temperature they live longer, but produce : less eggs. Food for the flies is the following mixture: : smashed fruit or fruit baby food : orange juice : rice baby food (dry) : milk powder : pollen : honey : I mix about the same amount of these things. The mixture looks and tastes : good! They I smear the mixture on the gauze on the top of the jar. This way : the flies can eat it from the inside, and they won't drown in the food or : make the jar too messy. Be careful, the food should not drip from the gauze : to the bottom of the jar. With this food, no water is necessary for the : flies. Every day or every two days, I remove and wash the gauze. : A small box should be placed in the jar for the eggs. You'll get the most : eggs with a small piece of meat placed in the box, minced meat is the best, : but it will inevitably stink up the place. IMHO it's better to put some of : the "larva food mix" (see below) in the box as an egg laying medium. You'll : get less eggs, but less odour as well. : The bottom of the box should be filled with wet sawdust, and about one : spoonful of the larva food mix should be placed on it. You can remove the : egg laying box after 3 days and put it in another container, the hatching : box. : 2. HATCHING EGGS: I use one of those plastic boxes that are in the fridge : and people keep vegetables in them, but any container will do. Place the egg : laying box in the middle of the container, and cover the container with a : screen top really well. All eggs should hatch in 3 days at 24-28?C. Then : clean the egg laying box, and put the larvae in the larva raising container. : 3. RAISING LARVAE: You can keep the larvae in your fridge for 6 weeks. The : longer you keep them, the less will pupate and hatch. Normally, without : cooling them, it takes 7 to 10 days to hatch, depending on temperature. : Larvae should be kept on moist wood shavings. The volume of the sahvings : should be at least three times the volume of the larvae. I feed my larvae : the following "larva food mix": : 1 cup of oatmeal : 1 cup of ground soy beans : 1 cup of milk powder : 1 cup of pollen : 1 large spoonful of brewer's yeast : You can prepare this mixture and store it for months, and when you want to : feed, just mix some of it with water and/or honey. Put it on top of the wood : shavings, but only as much as is consumed in one day. When the larvae pupate : and hatch, remove the flies from the container. : SOME USEFUL PIECES OF INFORMATION : 1. No matter how hard you try to keep them clean, larvae will have some : odour. This is because they produce ammonia, which has a substantial smell. : If you avoid feeding certain things (mainly meat) to larvae, the smell can : be decreased greatly. : 2. Removing flies from the jar: Cover the outside of the jar with a thick : towel or blanket. Remove the gauze from the top, and pull a trasparent : plastic bag on the opening. The flies will try to fly out to the light, and : they'll fly directly into the plastic bag. : 3. Feeding larvae: they grow faster and you can have a higher hatch rate if : feeding minced meat, moist dog or cat food or cottage cheese. But the whole : colony will stink like... well, like something that stinks very much. : 4. Supplementing. I'd be very careful with dusting flies with vit/calc : supplements. They are kind of hairy, and much more supplement sticks to them : than to crickets. It must be very easy to oversupplement with flies. : 5. Smaller is better sometimes! You can force your larvae to pupate : prematurely, and much smaller flies will hatch. This is good if you have : smaller chams, but these small flies won't breed much, so never force-pupate : your whole colony. The method of force pupating is to keep your larvae at : 27?C, feed them for 3 days, and then stop feeding them. The lack of food : will induce pupation. The flies will be about half of the size of the : normally pupated ones. : 6. Many lizard will eat the larvae as well. I have no information about : their nutritional value, but my waterdragons and some geckoes love them!

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