# Musca domestica (house fly) rearing container



## tonying (Mar 6, 2008)

I don't know if there's anyone here interested in rearing Musca domestica (house fly) but since a lot of people here have other pets than PDFs and some have terribilis frogs, I thought I'd share this. I originally posted this on a mantis forum since I use the flies to feed my mantis.

The concept was based around 0.5L cups with lids but any round container with lids will do as substitute for the cups I've used.

Here's the concept:

Before you read any further, please note that I understand that simpler is better. However, I have a craving for bizarre and elaborate DIY projects. Occasionally, the results may be useful. I wanted to share this latest "invention" with you all in case any of you feel the same. Or you might just want a deluxe house for your flies.


After a short time of keeping Musca domestica and having them escape all over the place, I noticed that they are A. faster than the D. hydei I'm used to and B. much more capable of short flights than D. hydei. In addition, the larvae need certain conditions, the pupae others and the adults need food, water and some space. Complicating factors; 1. I need very few flies each time I feed; 2. I cannot keep maggots in the fridge because of girlfriend veto; 3. I prefer to have one container.

My combined academic and military background immediately made me prefer over-elaborate planning. So I set up criteria;

- Modular design (maximized flexibility) with easy and fast module switches
- Maximum security / minimal exposure to escape opportunities
- Standardized replacement parts and modular components
- Accomodation of all three stages (larvae, pupae, adult) in a single container
- Easy extraction of 1-5 flies without having to risk escapes

The work process then commenced and after no more than a couple of hours of shopping for parts and construction, it was finished. It has been operational for almost a week now and so far, I'm very pleased. I drilled and sawed a hole in the lid of the container. Then I cut off the bottom of a plastic mug and put it in the hole, securing it with silicone. Below the plastic mug, I a plastic jar lid after cutting out the middle. Two bottle caps were also glued to the bottom of the container. I drilled a series of holes for ventilation and glued some insect net to make them escape proof. Finally, I drilled two more holes and put green aquarium hoses through the holes. 

The design concept is that the plastic mug is the modular section. It has a removeable lid and since it supports standardized lids, I already have a few different specialized lids for different purposes. In addition, it also supports standardized inserts, being made of plastic jars for dairy products which I eat to a considerable extent. These inserts can be easily replaced. Currently, I have a culturing substrate insert and a low-ventilation lid (i.e. a lid with only a few small holes). The lid keeps the humidity up and keeps at least most of the smell inside. If I want to, I can easily remove the culturing insert and put a different lid on. I have several extraction lids (i.e., lids designed to let only a few flies at a time through) in case the container becomes overpopulated (making it difficult to extract flies without having many escapees). In addition, I have a thin "plastic barrier" that I can add to block access to the culturing insert, in case I want to stop the flies from further breeding.









This is the finished product









Side view. Note the plastic mug. 









The two green hoses are for food and water supply. The two bottle caps are glued to the container. I use one hose to add water and one to add sugar water and similar fluid food stuffs. The plastic syringe is from a pharmacy, they gave me two of them for free since they cost almost nothing anyway.









The removeable lid, with culturing insert in place.









The culturing insert in place, note the two plastic straps I use to lift it up when I want to remove it. Also note the access holes for the flies.









This is the barrier. It was as simple as cutting up another identical plastic mug. It fits perfectly inside the first plastic mug and blocks the access holes, preventing flies from getting to the culturing insert.









This is what it looks like with the culturing insert removed. Note that the plastic lid glued to the bottom means that I can put thin bottle caps with honey in the container without having them slide away beyond reach. 









Another modular option. I can put a plastic mug on top of the other plastic mug and let the flies walk into it. If I need to secure the mug, I can simply use two standard lids glued together with a hole in the middle.









Another modular lid, this one has a thick green hose for evacuating manageable numbers of flies in case of drastic overpopulation. 

After a week of operation, I'm very happy with this construction. It allows me to add water and food in a secure manner and I can tinker with experimental culturing substrates, removing them if they fail. But most of all, it was fun to plan and construct.

Yes, I am a bit crazy and yes, I love to plan and design DIY stuff.


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## Marinarawr (Jan 14, 2009)

This really does look quite ingenious . It covers all of the bases in a contained manner. Your design makes me wish even more that we had flightless musca domestica over here . (If anyone has them or know where I can get them in the US send me a PM .) Great job!


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## tonying (Mar 6, 2008)

Can you import them to the US? They can hardly qualify as an invasive species since they're already established. I don't think shipping time would be too much of a problem either, the larvae can feed on the medium in the shipping container and the pupae are quite tough.


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## hexentanz (Sep 18, 2008)

hahaha this thread gave me a good chuckle.  I like how you broke from military background to 'maximum security'.

And you hacked ikea stuff didn't you? ,)

Awesome thread and idea!


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## Gaz1987 (Dec 27, 2008)

Looks like a good idea I will be trying something similar soon.

Have some questions though -

What culturing media do you use?

How productive is this method?

Do you get much smell from the tub?

How do you go about cleaning the tub? - 
Do you just start a new culture and then clean the tub out?

Thanks


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## tonying (Mar 6, 2008)

Gaz1987 said:


> Looks like a good idea I will be trying something similar soon.
> 
> Have some questions though -
> 
> ...


First of all, I'm quite new to culturing Musca domestica so there's probably people with more experience out there to ask. The media I'm testing right now is a mixture of yeast, oat meal and powdered milk. It doesn't smell too bad but hasn't worked yet. It recently dawned on me that it might not smell bad enough to make the flies lay eggs in it.

I haven't cleaned the tub yet but the plan is to do so when I have a steady amount of pupae and larvae that I can remove to a different container, then remove the remaining flies and soaking the whole thing in bleach.


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## Gaz1987 (Dec 27, 2008)

tonying said:


> First of all, I'm quite new to culturing Musca domestica so there's probably people with more experience out there to ask. The media I'm testing right now is a mixture of yeast, oat meal and powdered milk. It doesn't smell too bad but hasn't worked yet. It recently dawned on me that it might not smell bad enough to make the flies lay eggs in it.
> 
> I haven't cleaned the tub yet but the plan is to do so when I have a steady amount of pupae and larvae that I can remove to a different container, then remove the remaining flies and soaking the whole thing in bleach.


Ok thanks for your help.

I have been thinking of doing something similar for a long time but never actually got around to doing so. I will try and set up a culture in the next few days if I get time and see how it goes.

If anyone could give some info on culture media that would be great help 

Thanks again and good luck with your cultures 
Gary


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## tonying (Mar 6, 2008)

There's a pretty good guide here:

Curly wing culture

As for media, carrion is by far the easiest medium but it smells horribly. Manure is also very easy. Then you can use wet dog or cat food but that too will smell very bad. Culturing house flies isn't difficult per se, the trick is to find a medium that doesn't produce a terrible stench.


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## tonying (Mar 6, 2008)

The importance of foul odors to trigger oviposition should not be underestimated. Today I removed and examined the experimental medium I've had in place for more than a week. It didn't smell bad at all but it also had no eggs or larvae. So clearly a complete failure.

I want to keep this culture of Musca domestica going before all adults die of old age or become infertile so I decided to use traditional smelly medium, in my case cat food. I put an insert with cat food in the enclosure and the smell quickly caught the attention of a number of flies (more than were attracted to the other medium). 

A few hours later, I notice eggs. In the wrong place! One or more flies have laid eggs on the wet sponge that's used to provide them with water. There's absolutely no nutrition there, the larvae will die as soon as they hatch. Annoying. I've waited for eggs for 1½ weeks and this is how I get them. 

However, it provides an interesting clue. Why did a fly lay eggs this afternoon in a place that has been available all along? I think that the odor from the cat food triggered oviposition, even if it was in the wrong place. 

So, as we try to establish non-smelly culture media for these critters, we clearly must find a way to deal with the role of odor in oviposition. Had I known this before, I would have tried to place a piece of meat on top of the low-smelling medium and let it rot to trigger oviposition, then removed it once the eggs were in place. 

Well, at least this has been an educational experience.


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## brian (Jul 9, 2009)

> The flies themselves can survive quite happily with minimal humidity once they have plentiful water; in fact they prefer this. However, a reasonable humidity needs to be maintained for the egg-laying site which needs to kept quite moist, both to encourage oviposition and to prevent the eggs drying.


Curly wing culture

Hope this helps !!


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

I wonder if there is any scientific literature which identifies the specific chemical that attracts houseflies for oviposition, using just a small amount of the right chemical (like if it's cadaverine or putrescine) would probably help cut down on the odor.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

They will oviposit on fresh liver.. place the liver in a petri dish and cover tightly with some moist cheese cloth so the cheese cloth does not touch the liver. The flies should oviposit on the damp cheese cloth and the eggs and cheese cloth can be transfered to the rearing medium. This is one of the techniques used in labs to collect eggs for use in sterile conditions (such as wound cleaning). The eggs can be disinfected and the maggots are then reared in sterile media. 

The problem with the curly wings house flies is that this mutation does not appear to be as stable as those in fruit flies and a lot of people have had cultures revert on them. 

Ed


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## rpmurphey (Mar 9, 2009)

If you are really interested, here is a link might help you out. You will have to pay for using the journal but there is alot of useful information that might help you out.

Am. J. Epidemiol. -- Sign In Page

Here is another one, this one is FREE

http://community.wvu.edu/~jdw026/LabWWW/PDF_files/JFS2002060_475.pdf


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## BrianC (Jul 18, 2009)

I have this book at work, I can look and see if there's a reasonable recipe.


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## BrianC (Jul 18, 2009)

The more simple experiments that I see here use a cotton ball or wool pad soaked with 1:1 milk:water solution. The cotton was shaken in water to remove the eggs, which were then placed on the prepared diet.


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## TomcioM (Sep 26, 2011)

Hi,

does anyone have pictures of @tonying rearing containers (attached to first post)? Unfortunately I can't see them to study this interesting concept of M.domestica rearing.

with the best wishes
TM


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## WONTON SALLY (Jun 26, 2011)

TomcioM said:


> Hi,
> 
> does anyone have pictures of @tonying rearing containers (attached to first post)? Unfortunately I can't see them to study this interesting concept of M.domestica rearing.
> 
> ...


all the pics are gone for me as well, i would like to see this concept as well.


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## tonying (Mar 6, 2008)

Hi folks,

Sorry for the delay, I haven't been checking Dendroboard much lately, then I had to find the old pics and sort out some internet issues. Anyway, here they are again.


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