Black soldier fly larvae & bluebottle fly bedding

[ItsMike64]

Hi everyone! Super quick question – I just received an order of blue bottle fly spikes from rainbow mealworms and in the bag that they come in there is not a lot of bedding. I’m just wondering what I should get for them when I transfer them into a deli cup? The same question also applies to black soldier fly larvae as well.

Thanks!

 

[Mendez]

For blue bottle flies, you don't need any sort of bedding. Just put them in a deli cup and allow them to pupate. Of course, put the extras in the refrigerator. From my personal experience, I haven't had much luck pupating BB out with an additional heat source. They seem to pupate out a lot healthier when left at room temperature. Though I'm still experimenting with heat. I used a ceramic heat emitter that dried out the air a little too much and caused a ton of flies to have severely crinkled wings. I used a heat mat with not enough of a buffer between the mat and the larvae and ended up frying the larvae. Now, I have a nice stream of flies. The room they sit in ranges from 75-80F. @javadi has a lot of experience with them, perhaps he should write a blog about flies or something. He's the lord of the flies 😄

I hardly use black solider flies, but I know that some people move them to a different container. I have had flies "hatch" in the container before, but I'm sure there might be better ways. I think @MissSkittles moves them onto coco fiber but I could be wrong.

 

[MissSkittles]

Yes, I do move bsfl into some slightly moistened coco coir/soil mix. 1-2 times a week I give them a little something to eat and remoisten their soil if needed.