Attracting edible insects to the aviary

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STUART WHITING
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BrettB wrote: 16 Sep 2017, 19:22 Mediterranean fruit fly is the destructive one, certainly the authorities and any local fruit producers would be unhappy about them being deliberately cultivated. My understanding is that they have a preference for fruit still hanging on the tree rather than rotting fruit.
When I was at Uni they had "flightless" forms in the labs, I am not sure if these are readily available but it would certainly make it easier for the birds to catch them and less risk to the neighbors.

Cheers
Brett
That would make sense, well said :thumbup:
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roma9009
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Used to get the wingless ones in the uk commercialy arrow frogs loved them
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finchbreeder
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banana skins are really next to useless,
Seems to work here, at keeping the mix from going to mush quite so quickly. But then the temp here is never below 10 degrees in winter either. (WA = warm always) Another source of insects, that works well. Ask the seed merchants to contact you anytime they get contaminated seed. Yes seed weevils are really popular with the small waxbills like orange breasteds. :chicken: And should you get weevils in your pantry do not despair, the finches will be happy. Small weevils are easy to keep going, just get a reasonable size plastic container, and keep some seed/cereal mix for them. Remove as required to china bowls in the avairy. Mine are happily feeding on the latest batch right now.
LML
LML
STUART WHITING
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Posts: 343
Joined: 03 Jun 2017, 18:30
Location: England

finchbreeder wrote: 17 Sep 2017, 12:48 banana skins are really next to useless,
Seems to work here, at keeping the mix from going to mush quite so quickly. But then the temp here is never below 10 degrees in winter either. (WA = warm always) Another source of insects, that works well. Ask the seed merchants to contact you anytime they get contaminated seed. Yes seed weevils are really popular with the small waxbills like orange breasteds. :chicken: And should you get weevils in your pantry do not despair, the finches will be happy. Small weevils are easy to keep going, just get a reasonable size plastic container, and keep some seed/cereal mix for them. Remove as required to china bowls in the avairy. Mine are happily feeding on the latest batch right now.
LML
Right ok, I'll put it another way, from experience the very best fruit to use for fruit fly culture is without a doubt chopped banana, yes you will get the fly on the skins but nowhere near as much as one would on the banana itself,

My reason is why on erf fill half of a tub up with skins when I'd much sooner use just the banana and generally gain more fruit fly, yes yer right the banana does go to mush quite quickly but when it gets to this stage eaither top up a bit more or place another tub next to the original and so forth, baring in mind that I've been cultivating fruit fly now for well over 30 odd years or more :roll:

You mention going to a seed merchant and ask for old contaminated seed that has seed weavels :o

Sorry but here in England that would be a no no, I tend to only use quality recognised seed companies and no way in this world would I ever use seed that had or got seed weavels in it, if I brought this into me seed shed my god I could run the risk of contaminating the entire lot of me seed stock :thumbdown:
This is absolutely no good to me as seed weavels eat into the seed and cause it to go dusty, we pay good money to have quality " dust free " seed and wouldn't dream of buying old seed

Sorry finchbreeder but it seems that you have completely different ways of keeping birds, it's just a personal opinion of what I'd do and not do.............no harm intended ;-)
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finchbreeder
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You mention going to a seed merchant and ask for old contaminated seed that has seed weavels :o
Don't put it in proximity of your "good feed seed" Maybe that is one of the advantages of most Aussies living on 1/4 acre blocks with a couple of sheds.
LML
LML
STUART WHITING
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finchbreeder wrote: 18 Sep 2017, 10:23 You mention going to a seed merchant and ask for old contaminated seed that has seed weavels :o
Don't put it in proximity of your "good feed seed" Maybe that is one of the advantages of most Aussies living on 1/4 acre blocks with a couple of sheds.
LML
Yes finchbreeder I do quite agree there :D

Yer see I have a std 80 ft garden with me birdroom, a utility room / shed for fridges, freezers etc, the wife's summer house and me small seed shed, everything in me seed shed has to be 100 % clean as I keep all of me good quality bird foods in there IE, seed, soft foods, egg foods and me live food etc :thumbup:

Can sort of see what yer saying though, thanks for sharing
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