Attracting edible insects to the aviary

[davlee]

Are there any bits of fruit or vegetables that will achieve this when placed in the aviary? Are there any that shouldn't be used?

Dave

[mr skeeter]

lemons, limes, oranges in an old ice-cream container with small wire over the top will do the job. good luck

[finchbreeder]

I put any fruit that goes off, banana peels, apple cores, tomatoes. Into empty plastic fruit juice or cool drink bottles. Pierce with an icepick or shark knife and place in the avairy where the birds can easily get at the fruit/vinigar flys as they enter and exit. Cuban particularly likes sitting there picking them off. And you just chuck the whole thing in the bin when ready to replace. Some people also put solar lights in to attract moths.
LML

[wagga]

NO avocado.
Those small vinegar flies (Drosophila melanogaster) can not resist the soft fleshy (high sugar content) fruits like peach, nectarines, oranges, mandarins, water and rock melons.

[STUART WHITING]

For the very first few days of a youngsters life when in the nest many will need very small insects,

I normally achieve this by using aphids or fruit fly culture,

You'll need a few tubs half filled up with folded newspaper and then topped up to the top of the tub with chopped banana, banana skins are really next to useless,

Place these tubs in the warmest areas you can find for a few days and start off by purchasing yerself a pot of fruit fly which you can open up and place next to the tub of bananas, in no time the tub will be smothered in the fruit fly,

Now place some fine mesh over the top of the tub and place in the avairy and leave for about fortnight, meanwhile repeat this process of using another tub and half fill with newspaper and then again top up to the top of the tub with more bananas, now place this in yer avairy directly next to the first tub of fruit and leave together for a few days, you'll now see that the second tub should be alive with fruit fly aswell.

Now take out the first original tub as the fruit by now will be a sludge because it's been left for near enough 3-4 weeks, clean the tub and repeat again by placing more paper and banana, this can now be put into the avairy and again placed next to the other tub, in a few days time the fruit fly will once again spread to this tub aswell and so the whole process repeats again and again,

All the while yer breeding yer finches you'll need to keep up this process,

Whilst this is all being done I'm also giving plenty of live maggots aswell as the birds will also rear their young with maggots aswell, generally if the finches are very small IE waxbills which is what I mainly specialise in, the fruit fly would be fed first for the first 3-4 days and then maggots will then be gradually fed to the youngsters once they become a few days old and will continue being fed the maggots once they've fledged and being weaned.

If one is wanting to rear waxbills it is normally vital to use aphids or fruit fly for the first few days of the chicks lives, maggots on their own will not really be good enough but are perfectly OK once the birds have reached about 5-6 days of age onwards,

Always remember though that the conditions in an ideal world need to be as warm / hot as possible to successfully produce a fruit fly culture.

Be lucky

[shnapper20]

hi stuart, wow you can buy a pot of fruit fly over there, and maggots, In victoria fruit fly is kept out of the state with quarantine laws as it would effect our orchids. I have vinegar fly traps but this is a bit hit and miss. Your method sounds heaps better. I think I might try rotating the vinegar fly traps similar to the way you describe it. I could place a tub in my lemon tree and hopefully that would entice nature to populate the tub.

[STUART WHITING]

hi stuart, wow you can buy a pot of fruit fly over there, and maggots, In victoria fruit fly is kept out of the state with quarantine laws as it would effect our orchids. I have vinegar fly traps but this is a bit hit and miss. Your method sounds heaps better. I think I might try rotating the vinegar fly traps similar to the way you describe it. I could place a tub in my lemon tree and hopefully that would entice nature to populate the tub.

Hi there shnapper,

As regards to the fruit fly you can actually try the process and routine as to what I've explained as it's not essential to have to buy the fruit fly to start the culture off, just by having the tubs of banana in the hot weather sooner or later should start to see fruit fly on the fruit after a while, might take a few days or it could take a few weeks to start a culture going,

If you do manage to get some fruit fly on the go I'd just keep quiet about it if there not really supposed to be allowed

Be lucky

[vettepilot_6]

Hi there shnapper,

As regards to the fruit fly you can actually try the process and routine as to what I've explained as it's not essential to have to buy the fruit fly to start the culture off, just by having the tubs of banana in the hot weather sooner or later should start to see fruit fly on the fruit after a while, might take a few days or it could take a few weeks to start a culture going,

If you do manage to get some fruit fly on the go I'd just keep quiet about it if there not really supposed to be allowed

Be lucky

I think you are referring to what we call vinegar flys..extremely small flys compared to fruit fly... banana or citrus left in sun is quickest way of attracting them...I have fledged rc cordons on them .....Strawberries fingers crossed are now on last clutch and vinegar fly have returned so hopefully they have a good clutch also....

[STUART WHITING]

Blimey Dave, the vinegar flies are even smaller than the fruit fly

And there's me thinking that the fruit flies are small

[BrettB]

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