# House fly culturing and harvesting



## ian (Dec 25, 2006)

Anyone know how to culture house flies (musca domestica)? Trying a new feeder maggot as well as full size house flies for my veiled cham. Any help would be great.


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## Dangerously (Dec 19, 2007)

Search for threads on this - there are a couple here.


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## earthfrog (May 18, 2008)

There's a good recipe called the 'Power Mix' for your flies that you can make at home with some minor adjustments to increase its effectiveness. 

Generally, add more vinegar mixed with water sparingly to counteract mold if you make cultures at home, or add it to premade cultures. 

I tried making this 'Power Mix' culture at home---the one with grape juice, bananas, potato flakes, apple cider vinegar, yeast. etc.---the original recipe doesn't work so well b/c it needs more moisture. After having mine mold within a few days and making it according to the original recipe, the second attempt involved eliminating the yeast and added two more TBS of water. Then I sprayed it a few times with a 50/50 mix of water and 9% acidity white vinegar. The first times I tried it with just the recipe they provided, yeast and all, it dried out so quick and molded that the maggots quickly ran out of moisture. I finally figured that the yeast was consuming the water, so with my previously-frozen leftover culture mixes, I nuked them to kill the yeast inside and added the extra ingredients above. Now my cultures are producing very well on this altered recipe---the extra vinegar does not bother them. Hope this helps.


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

earthfrog said:


> There's a good recipe called the 'Power Mix' for your flies that you can make at home with some minor adjustments to increase its effectiveness.
> 
> Generally, add more vinegar mixed with water sparingly to counteract mold if you make cultures at home, or add it to premade cultures.
> 
> I tried making this 'Power Mix' culture at home---the one with grape juice, bananas, potato flakes, apple cider vinegar, yeast. etc.---the original recipe doesn't work so well b/c it needs more moisture. After having mine mold within a few days and making it according to the original recipe, the second attempt involved eliminating the yeast and added two more TBS of water. Then I sprayed it a few times with a 50/50 mix of water and 9% acidity white vinegar. The first times I tried it with just the recipe they provided, yeast and all, it dried out so quick and molded that the maggots quickly ran out of moisture. I finally figured that the yeast was consuming the water, so with my previously-frozen leftover culture mixes, I nuked them to kill the yeast inside and added the extra ingredients above. Now my cultures are producing very well on this altered recipe---the extra vinegar does not bother them. Hope this helps.


This person is asking for housefly media. The info you have posted is for fruit flies, which are something completely different, houseflies will not culture with a fruit fly medium.


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

Culturing the houseflies is quite a pain (and smelly) from what I have heard.

Pupating blue bottle (blow) flies is quite easy, and you can buy the larvae online (http://www.grubco.com). They are a great cham food. They would be good for a juvi veiled, and probably a female - but would be too small for an adult male.

A really fun feeder for chams are Panchlora nivea (Green cuban banana roaches) - the adults are ~1", bright green, and they flutter around. Chams go crazy for them (or at least mine did).


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## elmoisfive (Dec 31, 2004)

Try this thread for some info...

food-feeding/topic29248.html

Bill


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## earthfrog (May 18, 2008)

Catfur said:


> This person is asking for housefly media. The info you have posted is for fruit flies, which are something completely different, houseflies will not culture with a fruit fly medium.


Sorry---I'm still a newbie at this---but it's a great recipe for fruit flies. I thought they were basically the same thing.


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## ian (Dec 25, 2006)

Thanks for the replies. I searched to no avail. All that was coming up was how to get rid of them. My veiled is only a few months old (4) and loves to eat flies more than anything. I didn't know they would smell that bad. I might try the blow fly thing.


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## earthfrog (May 18, 2008)

You might also try silkworms---they're high in nutrients and not smelly if kept in an open-lidded container.


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