Ongoing fly issues have been finding the preferred egg-laying substrate as well as encouraging mating. This has been the cycle: Larvae to flies, flies to eggs, eggs to ... nothing.
I recently had to work around a female laying eggs. It took about 30 minutes for her to finish laying the cluster. She chose the green tape along the top edge of the terrarium opening, where the plastic covering could squash them. I gingerly removed the cluster onto a dish where they safely hatched two days later.
Please enjoy this vertical video [vertical videos suck, I know, but they're more ergonomic to film on a phone!] of the female laying her eggs.
Getting the flies to lay eggs in convenient locations -- not easy. I've read blogs that say "use strips of corrugated cardboard for the females to lay eggs down into." Yeah? Ok. Then must I install a tiny, neon sign saying "LAY EGGS HERE" because that didn't work. I've tried it a couple different times in different locations. The cardboard was taped to the side of the food bin but it was ignored. I've taped it to the side of tank up high. They are still uninterested. The females seemed to prefer the side of the plastic humidity dish. At least four clusters have been laid on that dish. Two of those clusters produced a successful hatch. The other two seemed to dry up before hatching. I found four more clusters on the back of Gorilla tape -- that super sticky tape. Four females decided that's The Spot.
The Gorilla tape was a hatching failure, but not for reasons you might expect. I removed the tape (it had been holding up the tank thermometer and started to sag away from the wall, revealing sticky sides) and dropped it into the food bin. A day later I checked the clusters, and they were crawling with tiny white mites. White mites aren't new. I had them in the worm bin. They were in the larvae bin. They chow down on dead or decaying material. And also fly eggs apparently. I really wanted to see if the hatched teenies would make it off of the tape adhesive. This was disappointing. I would have so many larvae right now if it wasn't for those meddlesome mites...
I downsized the food bin to a cup with a clump of larvae residue (residue = crap) which also had a mix of coffee grounds. Using the residue indicates to the female that there is a healthy colony nearby, and it's safe to lay eggs. The residue was also quite acidic due to a constant addition of coffee grounds. Mites will do well in an acidic environment, or so says another blog.
So far I have tried a few egg-laying substrates: VHS tape streamers, mesh from vegetable bags, wet newspaper and the cardboard. Here's a handy gardening tip for you backyard growers out there with deer problems: fence in your garden with three or four strips of VHS tape. Deer can't figure out how to get by it. It is also the perfect surface for an unknown bug to lay eggs. (Now this segway makes sense again, right?)
If one bug likes to lay eggs on it, maybe the BSF will. (They don't.) Maybe the females were drawn to the mesh wrapped around the humidity bowl. (They aren't.) Ok, what if I keep damp newspaper along the one wall. (They don't care.) Instead, a female has laid eggs in the bottom corner of the tank and another in the now hardened larvae residue in the cup. They have also laid eggs on the back side of the thermometer. (None of these have lead to successful hatches either.)
Temperature control is getting trickier too since the wood stove has been decommissioned as spring heats up. I have two seed-warming pads under the terrarium now, which is now located in my bedroom because the upstairs is now warmer than the basement. I wrap it in a comforter at night to keep heat in.
It has been difficult to create the optimal temp, light and humidity during the month of April. On a warm (but not hot) day, I move the terrarium outside.
I've found a dozen egg clusters with no hatch success: not good. I may have to break down and buy another few thousand larvae. That might be the missing factor right now, but then again, the temperature has been very erratic despite my efforts. I just know that I really do not feel like making those tiny, neon "LAY EGGS HERE" signs.
I recently had to work around a female laying eggs. It took about 30 minutes for her to finish laying the cluster. She chose the green tape along the top edge of the terrarium opening, where the plastic covering could squash them. I gingerly removed the cluster onto a dish where they safely hatched two days later.
Please enjoy this vertical video [vertical videos suck, I know, but they're more ergonomic to film on a phone!] of the female laying her eggs.
Getting the flies to lay eggs in convenient locations -- not easy. I've read blogs that say "use strips of corrugated cardboard for the females to lay eggs down into." Yeah? Ok. Then must I install a tiny, neon sign saying "LAY EGGS HERE" because that didn't work. I've tried it a couple different times in different locations. The cardboard was taped to the side of the food bin but it was ignored. I've taped it to the side of tank up high. They are still uninterested. The females seemed to prefer the side of the plastic humidity dish. At least four clusters have been laid on that dish. Two of those clusters produced a successful hatch. The other two seemed to dry up before hatching. I found four more clusters on the back of Gorilla tape -- that super sticky tape. Four females decided that's The Spot.
The Gorilla tape was a hatching failure, but not for reasons you might expect. I removed the tape (it had been holding up the tank thermometer and started to sag away from the wall, revealing sticky sides) and dropped it into the food bin. A day later I checked the clusters, and they were crawling with tiny white mites. White mites aren't new. I had them in the worm bin. They were in the larvae bin. They chow down on dead or decaying material. And also fly eggs apparently. I really wanted to see if the hatched teenies would make it off of the tape adhesive. This was disappointing. I would have so many larvae right now if it wasn't for those meddlesome mites...
I downsized the food bin to a cup with a clump of larvae residue (residue = crap) which also had a mix of coffee grounds. Using the residue indicates to the female that there is a healthy colony nearby, and it's safe to lay eggs. The residue was also quite acidic due to a constant addition of coffee grounds. Mites will do well in an acidic environment, or so says another blog.
So far I have tried a few egg-laying substrates: VHS tape streamers, mesh from vegetable bags, wet newspaper and the cardboard. Here's a handy gardening tip for you backyard growers out there with deer problems: fence in your garden with three or four strips of VHS tape. Deer can't figure out how to get by it. It is also the perfect surface for an unknown bug to lay eggs. (Now this segway makes sense again, right?)
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| Here are the mystery bug eggs we found on the VHS tape fencing in the garden |
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| Cardboard, VHS tape streamers, and vegetable netting (Newspaper photo is boring so no image of that) |
It has been difficult to create the optimal temp, light and humidity during the month of April. On a warm (but not hot) day, I move the terrarium outside.
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| The first BSFs I have witnessed mating |
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| I didn't realize the leaf had an egg cluster, and I brushed it with my sleeve. |
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