[santoury]

When I was young, my science teacher had salamanders, baby toads, etc - and what we did, was put a small piece of banana in a small lid in the cage, and we never needed to feed the animals - there was always a nice cloud of friut flies handy. Any cons to doing this, other than the flies themselves ?

 

[deboardfam]

Are you talking about just letting outside flies fly in?

Definite cons. They could have parasites, flew through some type of chemical, lots of things you dont want on them going into your animals stomachs ins short.

Now if you are talking about using a banana to attract your cultured flies to a certain spot then yes.. this is a common practice.

 

[santoury]

I was referring to the "outside flies" - makes sense about the potential chemical exposure.

 

[Mitch]

Stick with the flies you culture. There are ton's of other foods you could feed too - springtails, isopods, and bean beetles just to name a few...

 

[Yobosayo]

Can't dust them!

 

[santoury]

What are bean beetles ? Mealworms ?

 

[varanoid]

What are bean beetles ? Mealworms ?

Here you go.

BeanBeetles.org/A Handbook on Bean Beetles: Laboratory Methods