Unleash the flies!

Wowbango

Wowbango

Established Member
So I ordered some Housefly Pupae based on the recommendation by Junglefries to feed to my new little girls. They arrived a few days ago and I put them in a deli cup to feed off as they hatch. Yesterday morning when I got up to feed them, I noticed there were two flies in the container, YES! Fed them off, fed Nigel...got ready went to work.

When I got home I went to go check them once again and from a distance, I saw that several had hatched, exciting! I went to reach for the container...and a SWARM of flies erupted and flew EVERYWHERE! GAH! I freaked out, threw a towel over the container and then carried it outside. Ok...well at least only a few dozen got out...

I go back inside...look up at the ceiling...COVERED in flies! There were HUNDREDS of flies EVERYWHERE! OH NO!! I made the mistake of not closing the container properly in the morning when I left...and they all escaped...now I have hundreds of flies in my home.:(

I went to home depot and got those fly trap bag things and hoping it takes care of it over the next few days. I tried shooing them all out the doors as best as I could but probably only a few. There's nothing for them to eat, so they should die off quickly shouldn't they? Any tips on how to get rid of them? So mad at myself for being such a dummy!
 
Vacuum them up. They'll make a huge mess--little dots of excrement everywhere--if you don't get rid of them.

Next time put a few in a deli cup with a 1/4 inch hole in it. Put a piece of masking tape over the hole. When you go to feed them out, put the little deli cup in the cage and pull the tape off the hole.
 
jajeanpierre said:
Vacuum them up. They'll make a huge mess--little dots of excrement everywhere--if you don't get rid of them.

Next time put a few in a deli cup with a 1/4 inch hole in it. Put a piece of masking tape over the hole. When you go to feed them out, put the little deli cup in the cage and pull the tape off the hole.
Click to expand...

Yep, this is what I've discovered I SHOULD have done. Sadly they've all escaped already, haha. I thought about vacuuming, but the second I even get close they start to swarm away.
 
I dont want to laugh at you - but LOL - this also happened to me ( in the mdl of winter - in summer they always get out, and I blame it on our screen door- in winter I tell my husband - Hmmm- I dont know where these flies came from? :rolleyes: - if only he knew what was in our fridge - :eek: :p )
you can also open your windows and turn off all you lights, the flies will go to the bright light of the windows - and for next time- if you keep them in the fridge, and only pull a few at a time, you will only have hatch what you take out - ;)
 
little leaf said:
I dont want to laugh at you - but LOL - this also happened to me ( in the mdl of winter - in summer they always get out, and I blame it on our screen door- in winter I tell my husband - Hmmm- I dont know where these flies came from? :rolleyes: - if only he knew what was in our fridge - :eek: :p )
you can also open your windows and turn off all you lights, the flies will go to the bright light of the windows - and for next time- if you keep them in the fridge, and only pull a few at a time, you will only have hatch what you take out - ;)
Click to expand...

Oh PLEASE feel free to laugh. I laughed like a lunatic once I realized what happened. The slow turning of my head up to the ceiling and my jaw dropping...I wish I could have it on video to watch over and over again, haha! My girlfriend...however...did not find it as amusing as I did, when she got home...
 
Wowbango said:
So I ordered some Housefly Pupae based on the recommendation by Junglefries to feed to my new little girls. They arrived a few days ago and I put them in a deli cup to feed off as they hatch. Yesterday morning when I got up to feed them, I noticed there were two flies in the container, YES! Fed them off, fed Nigel...got ready went to work.

When I got home I went to go check them once again and from a distance, I saw that several had hatched, exciting! I went to reach for the container...and a SWARM of flies erupted and flew EVERYWHERE! GAH! I freaked out, threw a towel over the container and then carried it outside. Ok...well at least only a few dozen got out...

I go back inside...look up at the ceiling...COVERED in flies! There were HUNDREDS of flies EVERYWHERE! OH NO!! I made the mistake of not closing the container properly in the morning when I left...and they all escaped...now I have hundreds of flies in my home.:(

I went to home depot and got those fly trap bag things and hoping it takes care of it over the next few days. I tried shooing them all out the doors as best as I could but probably only a few. There's nothing for them to eat, so they should die off quickly shouldn't they? Any tips on how to get rid of them? So mad at myself for being such a dummy!
Click to expand...

This may sound crazy or stupid, but if you have a lot of extra pennies, put them in empty glasses and place them all around the house. My mom gets lots of flies that come in from the woods (she leaves her doors open a lot) and she swears that somehow the copper or something kills them off pretty quick. I haven't tested this myself, but it couldn't hurt if you've got a lot of pennies lying around.
 
jcarlsen said:
This may sound crazy or stupid, but if you have a lot of extra pennies, put them in empty glasses and place them all around the house. My mom gets lots of flies that come in from the woods (she leaves her doors open a lot) and she swears that somehow the copper or something kills them off pretty quick. I haven't tested this myself, but it couldn't hurt if you've got a lot of pennies lying around.
Click to expand...

Are they drawn to the glass of water or it releases something into the air that kills them?
 
That is the funniest story ever. Lol. Now I'm scared. I just ordered some fly larva for the first time yesterday. They should be here tomorrow. I'm going to try to learn from your mistake.
I was also recommended by junglefries. He def knows what he's talking about. He produces and raises some extremely beautiful babies.
 
Craigwyatt said:
That is the funniest story ever. Lol. Now I'm scared. I just ordered some fly larva for the first time yesterday. They should be here tomorrow. I'm going to try to learn from your mistake.
I was also recommended by junglefries. He def knows what he's talking about. He produces and raises some extremely beautiful babies.
Click to expand...

Haha, yes completely my fault. I also ordered the 10g (500 flies) instead of the 1g(50) because it was only $1 more. Wish I had stuck with 50!
 
I've also had the same thing happen to me here. My guys all free range so they had a ball hunting them. I ended up opening all the doors and and allot of them flew out. My husband also used the bug vacuum to get rid of a few. By the next day they were just about all gone. It was an adventure. :)
 
jannb said:
I've also had the same thing happen to me here. My guys all free range so they had a ball hunting them. I ended up opening all the doors and and allot of them flew out. My husband also used the bug vacuum to get rid of a few. By the next day they were just about all gone. It was an adventure. :)
Click to expand...

Nigel had no interest in them whatsoever, I think since they're smaller than he's accustomed to eating I guess. Bug Vacuum? I got home pretty late yesterday so I didn't have a whole lot of time to get much done, so I'll be doing some work today!
 
feeder horror stories continued...

Wowbango said:
Oh PLEASE feel free to laugh. I laughed like a lunatic once I realized what happened.
Click to expand...

I remember getting a shipment of pupae by mail once that got delayed. The package was absolutely vibrating with the 500+ emerged flies inside! The post office clerk commented in a rather crabby manner about a possible bomb. I set up a spare Reptarium and opened the box inside it so at least the darned things were confined. Catching a few to feed out was not fun however. I absolutely hate being outsmarted by a fly.

Be glad we don't need to feed our chams nightcrawlers. Those things are high maintenance and do their best to escape from just about any container. I was keeping frogs and can't keep worms in an outdoor compost pile up here because of chytrid fungus and bears. I had set up a new shipment of 300 worms in their specially built bin with a lightbulb over the top (the light is supposed to keep them under the soil surface instead of escaping), but the bulb burned out during the night. I woke up the next morning to hundreds of squirming dark things on every floor in the house. In my shoes, in kitchen cabinets, under furniture, on the walls, found their drying carcasses EVERYWHERE for at least a week. And, all I could think of was how much each of the little beggars cost to ship up here!

Oh then there was the night the dubia roach colony decided to tip itself off its warm shelf over my boiler. I think they held a dance or something. Of course the colony was bursting at the seams with hundreds of adults and who knows how many nymphs at the time. I was leaving for work and walked by the boiler closet where the bin sat, and found it upside down on the floor. Frass, roaches, decomposing egg crates, and food scattered everywhere, with occupants moving like lightening. When I called my office to explain why I would be late, there was this sort of stunned silence. Guess they hadn't heard that excuse before. I think I found the last starving, hypothermic roach inside the stereo cabinet months later. At least I knew that they wouldn't survive our winter somewhere in the house walls or crawlspace.

Every time I hear someone moaning about some escaped crix I have to laugh and wish my life was that simple.
 
Last edited:
Carlton said:
I remember getting a shipment of pupae by mail once that got delayed. The package was absolutely vibrating with the 500+ emerged flies inside! The post office clerk commented in a rather crabby manner about a possible bomb. I set up a spare Reptarium and opened the box inside it so at least the darned things were confined. Catching a few to feed out was not fun however. I absolutely hate being outsmarted by a fly.

Be glad we don't need to feed our chams nightcrawlers. Those things are high maintenance and do their best to escape from just about any container. I can't keep worms in an outdoor compost pile up here. I had set up a new shipment of 300 worms in their specially built bin with a lightbulb over the top (the light is supposed to keep them under the soil surface instead of escaping), but the bulb burned out during the night. I woke up the next morning to hundreds of squirming dark things on every floor in the house. In my shoes, in kitchen cabinets, under furniture, on the walls, found their drying carcasses EVERYWHERE for weeks. And, all I could think of was how much each of the little beggars cost to ship here!

Oh then there was the night the dubia roach colony decided to tip itself off its warm shelf over my boiler. I think they held a dance or something. Of course the colony was bursting at the seams with hundreds of adults and who knows how many nymphs at the time. I was leaving for work and walked by the boiler closet where the colony's bin sat, and found it upside down on the floor. Frass, roaches, decomposing egg crates, and food scattered everywhere, with occupants moving like lightening. When I called my office to explain why I would be late, there was this sort of stunned silence. Guess they hadn't heard that excuse before. I think I found the last hypothermic roach inside the stereo cabinet months later.
Click to expand...

HOLY SMOKES! What a nightmare! I can handle it...my girlfriend has not been so understanding...haha. Luckily all of our bedroom doors were closed so it's contained to just The living room/Kitchen area.
 
Ouch...that would have freaked me out for sure. :) It happened to me on a much smaller scale, where I bought some phoenix worms and one day opened the container and some flies flew out...some...like four. :) All the same it took me by surprise and I dropped the container...worms scurrying everywhere lol.

You'll laugh about this down the road. We live and learn. I am glad I read this thread as I was thinking of getting fly pupae also...so I am taking notes. :)
 
I use the method I learned from some 12yr old kid on youtube. Take a 32oz deli cup with a cloth lid, and cut about a dime sized hole in the side. Plug the hole with a piece of sponge. The flies can get moisture from the sponge also. I normally put about 50-75 pupae in each cup. They hatch over about a 4 day period. I use a little bit of excelsior (flies to walk on) in the cup, with a 50/50 mix of dehydrated milk and sugar for food. You can use honey for hydration, but mine never last long enough to drink. They get eaten too fast. I use the bottom cage door to stick cup inside and release some flies thru the sponge hole. You can also, just place 10-15 pupae in a small lid or cup to hatch and fly off upon hatching. A 3 month old panther or veil cham will easily eat 10-15 household flies in a day. At 4 months they may eat 30 or so. Be careful, some chams will get addicted like with superworms. I hope this helps everyone. I am currently waiting on an order of 500 Blue Bottle and 500 Household pupae. The Blue Bottle can supposedly go in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and still hatch. I found mixed recommendations on that with the Household. My chams just can't get enough. :D
 
I bought the bag fly traps, fly tape...set it up everywhere. None of it had been working! Tried using a vacuum to get them all up, but didn't have much success as they're fast little suckers. Finally been swatting away for the past two days with a good ol Fly Swatter. I've got reflexes like a mongoose! I'm better at this than I thought! Call me the FLY KILLA! :cool:
 
guarantee fruit & housefly collection

Any fruit fly or household fly that escapes always congregates to where my air filter exhausts. I have the Holmes tower model about 3' from the wall, blowing towards the wall. Any escapees group together on the wall like they are attending fly church. They seem to love that fresh ion air. Hang your swatter on the back of the filter and wait. The maybe 20 or so chinese mantids that I let loose have been cleaning up. I bent over to put something in my trash can, and there was like 7-8 hanging out hunting. I am really starting to dig those little guys. No more fruit flies walking over me at night. :D
 
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