Fruit flies, help!

[stevebagnall]

Hi all

I'm new to the forum and have recently ventured into the Hobby. I've a number of juveniles and slings and could do with some advice on the old fruit flies. Now I know you can get flightless fruit flies, which were the ones I was after, but my local pet shop managed to get me ones that fly! Needless to say trying to get them out to feed my slings is a nightmare. I also have some micro crickets, and these are the tiniest crickets I've ever seen. But they aren't as much bother as the fruit flies and I'm feeding the tiny slings on these, I'll buy size 1's next time.

Anyway back to my question. Does anyone have any tips on getting these flies out of the container successfully without them just flying off? I've tried covering the container with the lower leg off a pair of my wifes tights (she wasn't impressed) and coaxed them into it and then grabbed them out of there. I kill more than I actually manage to get out.

I've also read on other sites that people feed their slings maggots, and cut up bigger crickets and drop the disected parts into the pots. Is this a better option do you think? Sorry, banging on now. I'll await to see what responses I get. Cheers.

Steve

[chris king]

hi ya well i am total new to keeping Ts
but i ve been given advise, maggotts are good and come in small size pinkies,squatts,regular size, just get the whites no coloured maggotts,
i feed them to my slings and they go down a treat, pro very cheap,cons they dig down in the substrate if they dont get eaten straight away. but they do wiggle back up to lol,
tiny crix put in fridge for few mins before using ,it slow the little things down, soon warm up for the slings to eat
that may work with your flys too

hope that helps

[J M Clegg]

I tried fruit flies for some Praying Mantis nymphs last year and hated them!

The best food that so far I have found for slings, juvenile spiders are Lobster Roaches.

They don't fly, don't smell, and don't eat your slings. The hatchling nymphs are small enough to be handled by even the smallest sling, as the spiders get bigger so do the roaches.

They breed really easy - just keep them warm and let nature do the rest. I feed mine on porridge oats and cat biscuits. Give them an old toilet roll tube or a piece of egg carton (as found when buying crickets) and they have a nice home to get the started.

Obviously you need to be careful not to use them all for food, because you have to farm them in order to maintain the balance of food / versus breeding stock. I haven't bought any crickets for ages now, and more or less exclusively feed my spiders on roaches. As my spiders get bigger, I use two other species of roaches (Orange Head and Giant Deaths Head). Much much easier than crickets and much quieter too, with the added bonus that your not wasting £2.50 a week on crickets.

If you P.M me your address I will happily send you a starter colony.

Regards

Jay

[chris king]

sounds very good jay,as my collection seems to have grown from "just the one T "
and i hate crix
how easy /space is it to keep these roaches,

[stevebagnall]

Thanks Jay. I've sent you the message. I'll try your idea Chris of cooling the flies down before attempting to get them out again. I'm about to be inundated with them, as the tub is full of pubating maggots! I have 16 slings, so you can imagine the time it's taking to feed them. I lose 3 flies for each one I get out. I sit there and all of a sudden one comes flying past me! lol.

[chris king]

hi steve
dunno if it will work with the flys,def works with the crix,just dont leave in too long, lol
when i did it they all look dead , but i drop then in ,they werent there in the mornning lol

[stevebagnall]

Well its worth a try. Got to be better than last nights fiasco. I'll let you know how it goes. ;o)

[J M Clegg]

Hi chaps,

They are really easy to keep. I have mine in an old plastic tank, with a pair of the Mrs tights over the top to stop them escaping. The little devils can climb, so I run a 1 inch deep layer of vaseline all the way around the top on the inside of the tank. This stops them climbing out. my cousin has his in a 9litre "Really Useful Box" that you can buy for £5 from Staples.

I have found that keeping a small 4watt heat mat under the tank provides enough heat to stimulate breeding, and then just give them a few weeks in peace to really get going. You need around 20 or 30 fully mature adults to produce enough you to ensure the food / versus stock balance of a small colony. 16 slings should easilly be fed on a weekely by them once they start breeding. Be carefull not use them all up though, let some of them mature into breeding adults. Your better off farming them up to around 100 adults and then splitting the colony to breeders and feeders.

Give them somewhere to hide, like cardboard for example. Give them food and water and watch them go. Superb little food items that rarerly get above 3cm in size.

I think that between my and my cousin, we have enough to send you both a starter colony. At the moment though we can only do the two. I think Richard Gallon may still be selling some though. Our original colonies came from him last year and very reasonably priced.

Jay

Chris: your a fellow West Yorkshire man mate! Were in Huddersfield.

[chris king]

hi jay
many thanks for both the starter and the info ,sounds easy enough ,ive have pm you the details and that,
how long do they take to grow to adult ,then die of

chris
were in keighley

[stevebagnall]

Sounds good Jay. Cheers mate.
What are you feeding them on? I'm assuming the usual bug type stuff like left overs, cereal, veg etc. I'll look forward to receiving them. I'm sure the missus won't mind me nicking some more of her tights. It's for a good cause ;o)
I'll be trying the fridge trick tonight.

[Peter Roach]

There is an easy way out of your fruitfly problem

Throw them out and ask your local shop to stop messing you about and get some flightless flys for you or alternatively buy them online

http://www.livefoods.co.uk/product_i...products_id=40

http://www.thelivefoodwarehouse.co.uk/acatalog/Fruit_Fly.html

http://www.easyinsects.co.uk/livefood/fruitflies/index.html

I have about 230 slings and feed them either micro crix or number 1's
A tip is to put the micro's into a single noozle salt shaker (£ shop) and just tap a few out, also they will last longer if you feed them fishflake food and give them a very light spray with tepid water every other day. I buy micros and end up feeding them as adults to my large spiders.

[mary walters]

I give my roaches carrot, spud, grapes anything moist so i don't need to spray mine. I find B dubia a better roach as they don't climb and get all over the place, and my blondi's love the bigger males when I have too many.

[stevebagnall]

Cheers Peter. Your absolutely right. They are in the bin, shame because there are loads in the tub now. But just a pain to try and get them in with the slings. 230! wow, it's taking me long enough to feed 16. I called the pet shop and they can get flightless fruit flies. The girl who I spoke to before must have misheard me, because that's what I wanted. Great tip about the salt shaker . I did buy some crickets onlne from global live food, but they toom ages to come through, wasn't very impressed. I'll check these links out. Thanks.

I tried the fridge trick Chris, and it did slow them down for a bit, but within no time they were flying around again. I've at least got plenty of micro crickets for now and they seem to enjoy them.

Thanks for the tips on feeding Mary. I'm feeding my crix similar food.

Cheers for the tips guys, and cheers Jay for you kind offer.

[Tom Forman]

I know this is an old thread but I have a bit of of input incase any1 was interested in some tips on breeding fruit flies.
By the sound of things ppl generally seem to be avoiding fruit flies which is a shame. In nature flies are a spiders main food source, are high in fibre vitamins and not too fatty. They should definetely be part of a varied diet for your Tarantula. I know crickets are easier to breed, cockroaches even easier but flies are a welcome treat to any spider like a waxworm however waxworms cannot be fed on a consistent basis as they are too fattening.

Anyway, whether breeding crickets is easier than breeding fuit flies is debatable. There is less effort involved in flies and they don't need such a high temperature to breed.

First of all I would recommend getting flies from www.datrfrog.co.uk
They have three different sizes of fly which is great and have fast delvery times.

simplest and very effective food mix is descibed at www.dartfrog.tk.

I haven't actually tried this but I was thinking a very good way of keeping wingless fruitflies would be to have one tupperware container sit inside another slightly bigger tupperware container. Fill the smaller container with food, then fill the larger one with water so the smaller container is surrounded by water, then add the flies and the lid on the bigger container. Airholes are of course needed. Humidity would be perfect due to all the water and the flies could not escape when you open the lid.

I have got some flying fruitflies at the moment and they can be quite annoying granted but they are a fly and flies are very stupid. I love outsmarting the fly lol. Started as a little kid when my father taught me how flies see everything in slow motion so to catch a fly you need to get close to it really slowly so the fly cannot detect the movement.

Now since my flies are flying about I had to figure out a way of easily keeping them, tending to them and none of them escaping.
I keep the flies in a tupperware container . When I need to open the container I get a very bright light and shine it on one end of the container. Stupid as the flies are they just move towards the light and will not try to escape anywhere else so I can quickly change stuff about.

I now use a light all the time when handling flies. It calms them down loads and makes them much more managelable.
They will always try and follow the light.

Hope that helps anyone out and I hope it encourages people to breed flies. It is very easy although I did manage to kill my first culture due to dehydration lol. That is pretty much the only thing that can go wrong really.