4 replies to this topic

[ANTdrew]

Hello-

 I was thinking of saving money by catching fruit flies from my compost bin. I was thinking of putting some rotten fruit in a container and leaving it in the bin for a couple of days, so the flies can lay their eggs on it. Then I would close up the container and let the flies hatch. I figure this way I wouldn't have to worry about pesticides, but I was wondering if there were other problems I wasn't thinking of?

 I get a ton of soldier flies in there, too.

[ZllGGY]

the only problem with wild insects is the possibility of pesticide contamination even though they'd be in your bin the insects still travel so its probably i slight chance still. maybe just catching a small amount and then letting the generations grow for maybe two cycles will probably eliminate pesticides completely

Edited by ZllGGY, September 12 2018 - 1:22 PM.

[DaveJay]

I've done this with larger flies for my frogs, I think there still may be a very slight chance of pesticides but not much. Anything that hasn't killed the adult flies or affected their reproducing and hasn't affected the resulting larvae or their development is not likely to be present in the flies that you're feeding to your pets I think.

[sirjordanncurtis]

I've done this with larger flies for my frogs, I think there still may be a very slight chance of pesticides but not much. Anything that hasn't killed the adult flies or affected their reproducing and hasn't affected the resulting larvae or their development is not likely to be present in the flies that you're feeding to your pets I think.

 

 

Biomagnification though. Don't want to fill em up on too much. At any rate, if you do decide to start a culture with them, There's most likely going to be less harmful chemicals in the fruit flies if all ur feeding them is fruit like Banana.

[DaveJay]

I've done this with larger flies for my frogs, I think there still may be a very slight chance of pesticides but not much. Anything that hasn't killed the adult flies or affected their reproducing and hasn't affected the resulting larvae or their development is not likely to be present in the flies that you're feeding to your pets I think.

Biomagnification though. Don't want to fill em up on too much. At any rate, if you do decide to start a culture with them, There's most likely going to be less harmful chemicals in the fruit flies if all ur feeding them is fruit like Banana.

True, there's probably more risk from the fruit the larvae eat than from residual pesticides passed into the eggs from the wild parents.