# House Flies



## Tadpole (Apr 26, 2012)

I have a method of using house flies to feed my D. auratus:

First, catch some flies with a trap or a clear glass.

Gas them with CO2 until they pass out.  (max 5 minutes recommended under CO2)

While they are knocked out, use scissors to clip off one of their wings. (Calcium Dust bath optional) You can use this time to sort them by size as well. 

Put them in your tank and watch them wake up.

When the frogs come for them, they try to fly away, but end up flipped upside down; This is great for your terrestrial frogs.

This might sound like a lot of trouble, but when you consider how many fruit flies it takes to make a house fly, the calories seem to be worth the effort. Also, in a squeeze, houseflies are nearly an always attainable live food.

To get a fly culture going is easy; Just set up some Fly media and let some houseflies into it. Or take a select few live ones from a fly trap, CO2 gas them ,and sort select ones for breeding. You can sort out many different types and sizes of flies from small green houseflies up to larger horseflies.

A fly trap is easy to build from screen. Use the inverted screen cone trapping method and you will catch many flies. Bait the trap with some sugar water and yeast and it will fill up with flies quickly. You can put a fly escape in the trap to make it easier to harvest the flies from the trap.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I challenge you to show me a house fly culture using fruit fly media.
I use a LOT of house flies for my mantis. I slow them down by throwing them in the freezer for 3 minutes


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## Gamble (Aug 1, 2010)

Convienient, but i wonder what the risks are of passing diseases to your frogs?

I would imagine that there are higher risks of this as compared to culturing our own fruit flies.

I personally wouldnt risk it.

Comments anyone?


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## goof901 (Jan 9, 2012)

Gamble said:


> Convienient, but i wonder what the risks are of passing diseases to your frogs?
> 
> I would imagine that there are higher risks of this as compared to culturing our own fruit flies.
> 
> Comments anyone?


i would think so since they like horse poo which could transmit diseases. also if a fly lands on your food, your not supposed to eat it, so why feed the fly to your frog? just my opinion. also, fruit flies would be better imo because they culture faster and you don't have to knock them out everytime you need to feed.


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## stevenhman (Feb 19, 2008)

From what I remember reading, culturing house flies is a pain in the butt.

How do you culture yours frogparty?


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I buy maggots online and pupate them myself. I dont breed them. But at $7 for 500 its pretty cheap, and they have a long, odor free storage life in the fridge


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Could an Auratus even take a housefly? "Calcium dust bath optional"?? I guess if you want dead frogs.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

Troll troll troll. Houseflies are far too big for dendrobates. Phyllobates could


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Maybe I'll try it for my Reticulata.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I'd like to see your retics riding a blue bottle fly.... Make it happen


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## goku (Nov 11, 2009)

but Tapdole do your auratus eat the house flies? that would be quite impressive, as said, Phyllobates (specially terribilis) can eat them like nothing, but I always guessed that other terrestrial dartforgs couldn't do it.

frogparty in summer when houseflies are very usual around, some of them managed to leave some eggs through the cover of some ff cultures, and I can assure you that after a while they where crowded with adult flies..so yes, at least in my case, I can confirm that they can do it in a ff culture media, even if I always heard that it was not possible. 

I personally feed when available at home (that means when I can catch them) house flies to my mint terribilis, I used to do it as well with some oranges I had for a long time, and they seem to enjoy them very much, and never observed any problem/disease related with this issue. 

Just my experience!

greetings!


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## Faceless (Sep 11, 2008)

i dunnoooo.... this topic is a little sketchy to me, who knows where those flies have been before going in your house and what things it may have eaten or been in contact with..... 

You can get Blue Bot Flies and House fly cultures online, why not just do it that way ? for a few bucks it would seem like a better option than a random house fly that could possibly harm your frogs..... just a thought


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

this is an old thread, but thought I'd toss in my 2 cents' worth...while raising crickets for my tree frogs, I usually have some potato quarters in the Rubbermaid tubs...they are just one of the items in there for moisture for the 500 or so crickets...eventually somehow, larva shows up although I've never had a house fly inside the closed tub...but I feed out the larva, carefully picking the wrigglers out with probe. The frogs love 'em...


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Judy S said:


> this is an old thread, but thought I'd toss in my 2 cents' worth...while raising crickets for my tree frogs, I usually have some potato quarters in the Rubbermaid tubs...they are just one of the items in there for moisture for the 500 or so crickets...eventually somehow, larva shows up although I've never had a house fly inside the closed tub...but I feed out the larva, carefully picking the wrigglers out with probe. The frogs love 'em...


You may want to reconsider that approach.. Often the maggots that show up on the potatos are phorid fly larva and there are recorded instances of them passing through undigested... 

Ed


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

As usual....thank you for a educated answer...not just a guess. That takes one item off the menu...


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