[Guest]

First I want to thank Randy of Fruit Fly Specialties for the idea of feeding fly larval out of these cups.

I was thinking about how I was going to feed my frogs when I leave for a trip. After using mason jars with a mesh lid for previous trips and seeing Randy's cup I combined the two ideas. Here are a few pics:

This is just the normal cup. I use it to make a small fly culture and cut a hole in the lid to add a foam plug.

After about 10 days larva are crawling all over, and trying to climb through the foam. I remove the foam plug and snap a mesh into the lid.
This allows fly and larva to crawl out, and stops the frogs from getting into the media.

Because I have a mister, I set the cup on it's side and place a cocohut over the hole thing. I have larval crawling out and onto the coco hut so fast even my azureus pair can't keep up. I think this will be the first time I leave on a trip and the frogs gain weight, lol

 

[Jordan B]

That's a great idea! How do you make the mesh top? How else do you guys take care of your frogs while on vacation? Thanks,
Jordan

 

[geckguy]

I would trace the shape of the lid on the mesh, and use a good pair of scissors to cut it out.

 

[Michelle]

WOW good idea! I was thinking about how I was going to feed them wile I was away for a few days for Christmas too!! this will work great......
thanks
Michelle

 

[Guest]

But if u put it on the side wont media leak out?

 

[Guest]

For the mesh I traced the inside dia. of the cup itself. This size snaps right into the lid. Because the lid in still on and only has a whole in the center, the media won't spill out of the cup.
As for the foam plugs, I am using the one's from Ed's and cut them in half.

 

[Randy]

Look good, Ben! I'm going to have to whip up a couple dozen of those cultures myself in the next week or so.

 

[kyle1745]

Very cool!

 

[Guest]

WOW !!!
I am going to set a few of them up and see how my frogs like them.It will beat trying to dig out tiny waxworms for my thumbnails.
Mark W.

 

[RSines]

Ben,

Where did you get the mesh or what do you make it out of? Very cool idea, I plan to borrow it

-Richard

 

[Guest]

I made one and have it producing larve.I put it in with my bicolors and one of the females seems to sit by it and wait them out.
Since yesterday(when I put it in) she has fed quite alot judging from her fat belly :wink:
Richard, What it is is plastic canvas. you can find it at stores that specialize in crafts like Micheal's, Hobby Lobby,etc.There are different sizes so you will want #7.
Mark W

 

[Arklier]

Ben,

Where did you get the mesh or what do you make it out of? Very cool idea, I plan to borrow it

-Richard

It's called Plastic Canvas and is made for needlepoint. I use it in my FF cultures in place of excelsior. It can be washed and reused over and over again (though I'd recommend throwing it away if the culture develops mold). Nice thing about it is that it's cheap. You can buy it at Michael's or other craft stores for about $0.30 a sheet. The sheets are 10 1/2" by 13 1/2", so you can cut enough for a half a dozen cultures out of one sheet. It comes in many different counts (number of little square holes per inch) and sizes, but I'd recommend just getting the cheapest. The flies don't seem to care much. Here's a pic:

 

[Guest]

Just wanted to add that these cultures worked great for my trip.
Everyone was fat and healthy, and most even laid new clutches.

 

[SLEDDER23]

Summer is almost here, and it's vacation time! I found this pretty to be pretty helpful and thought others might as well, so: Bump.

 

[Scott]

I really miss having Ben Green contributing here. He is one of the good ones.

s

 

[Dancing frogs]

I really miss having Ben Green contributing here. He is one of the good ones.

s

Yep, me too...

 

[Dendro Dude]

bump :wink:

 

[Rain_Frog]

Remember, he got married. 8) Since then, I haven't heard from him.

 

[tItAnIuMhOpPeR]

bump :wink:

I just noticed that this got bumped two years after the last post. To the day. That is all, back to the frogs.

 

[rulzunivrs]

I'm going on a little trip and was searching the threads for just this idea. However this thread is so old the pics don't work. Does anyone have an updated version or could post something?