Vinegar fly and moth traps?

[fraudster]

Hi everyone,

Just wondering which species of birds would benefit from eating vinegar flies and moths, as i know not many finches will take insects on the wing. Would these kinds of traps be more suitable for finches instead of softbills?

Cheers and have a happy new year

Will

[Craig52]

I have no idea about the moths, E Orix will know. Vinegar flies are great for finches and smaller softbills in particular wrens, chats and honey eaters.
African waxbills, cordons, fires will hawk the flies out of a wire covered bucket with over ripe fruit in it constantly as will most Australian finches when they have young in the nest. Craig

[finchbreeder]

The African fires, Cubans and Orange breasteds show the most interest in my vinegar fly traps.
LML

[E Orix]

I run a moth trap through out the breeding season.
It is made from a round UV fluo lamp with a kitchen exhaust fan mounted behind the lamp.
The insects are drawn to the light sucked in and held in bag ready to be collected.
From there the bags are put in a refrigerator to slow them down or into a freezer to be kept
for a longer period or slow them totally. Slowing them down gives the birds a chance to get them
frozen they are then fed as required.
Apart from being great softbill food my finches take them readily, as there are normally a varied array
of insects most finches will pick the size required, Weavers, Red Crested and English Finches will grab the
moths while the smaller finches, Cordons etc take the smaller ones.
As for softbills, they are vital as the insects hard outer body case acts as pipe cleaners, cleaning out their
digestive tract.
I freeze the excess and store them in plastic containers because some nights you will catch a
large ice cream container full and a night or two later half a cup full.
By freezing them you can feed out with continuity.

[Tiaris]

If you are not likely to make a moth trap, you can get them from Bunnings. I have one of these & during warm months they catch reasonable quantities each night. Most useful for softbills. The general run of finches will take a few smaller ones as E.Orix said but the bulk of them will not be utilised unless highly insectivorous species are being kept. Of the more common finches, the one species which comes to mind which would greatly benefit from moths is the Jacarini.
I have used vinegar fly buckets regularly (mostly to add extra variety for small softbills) but small waxbills will take their share once they work out there is a supply on hand. This won't give a great volume of protein though, but a hell of alot better than none.

[fraudster]

Thanks everyone for the wonderful responses. I have added in the vinegar fly traps (it had rotting fruit in them for about 5 days before i out them into the aviary). I think my greatest concern is if the birds are smart enough to jump on the traps, scare the flies and eat them, but i guess they will figure out what to do in time.
Re moths, I've made a trap with a light and pheromones and a plastic bottle, but has not caught anything yet so might make anothet trip to bunnings to see if there are any traps worthwhile buying.
Hapoy new year!

[shnapper20]

I had been advised years ago to run led strip lights in my aviaries running off solar. I bought them off ebay . Installed them and they did attract insects of a night time however they also attracted mozzies (I blame my neighbours unused pool , I could be wrong butt...). Which chewed my birds. So the lights went. If you dont have mozzies in your area this is a great way to attract insects for your birds.

[Rod_L]

what about wingless fruit flies?
Get a culture from a university or online and put them in a bowl in the aviary. They are good for quails too

Flour weevil larvae can be cultivated easily. Get a new 40 litre plastic rubbish bin and add 5-10kg of any sort of wheat flour. Put the lid on and leave it for 6 months. Then scoop some flour out and sieve it back into the bin. Put weevil larvae from the sieve into a bowl and feed to birds. If you have several bins of flour, you can harvest from one for a bit while the other repopulates.

You can do the same with rice or any old seed. Find a bag of rice or seed at a supermarket that has stringy web like filaments in it and that is your starter culture. Put that and more rice in a bucket with a lid and it will quickly become infested with weevils. Just don't feed any old seed or grain to the birds.
*NB* keep this culture away from your normal bird seed or it will become infected too.

If you have any old clothes, you can put them into a plastic bin and leave for months. Clothes moths will infest the clothing and in warmer weather the adult moths will come out and fly around and land everywhere. The moths are pretty slow and like dark spots so tend to fly into corners where birds can get them.
*NB* don't keep them in the house or they get into everything and all your clothes become infested.

Having plants in the aviary will attract insects and having a low wattage night light will attract moths and provide some light for the birds to see where they are going if they are startled during the night. Some birds even wake up late at night and have a moth nightcap before going back to bed.

[Rod_L]

I had been advised years ago to run led strip lights in my aviaries running off solar. I bought them off ebay . Installed them and they did attract insects of a night time however they also attracted mozzies (I blame my neighbours unused pool , I could be wrong butt...). Which chewed my birds. So the lights went. If you dont have mozzies in your area this is a great way to attract insects for your birds.

mozzies are normally repelled by light. If you have plants, water, and people or animals together, you get mozzies. Mozzies hide in plants during the day and come out after dark to feed. The female mozzies are the ones that bite.
Get some plants that repel mosquitoes and have them in the aviary. Get some citronella oil and spray it around the outside of the aviary each night. Remove any standing water sources, and rinse out trays under pot plants every few days to get rid of mozzie eggs.

If you have a densely planted garden, try to encourage spiders and frogs. If you don't like spiders and frogs then you can gas the garden with some bug spray. Do it during the day and it can help. DO NOT SPRAY NEAR THE BIRDS THO.

If your neighbour has a green soupy pool that is a potential home to mozzies, contact the local council and inform them. You might mention there are lots of mozzies in the area and they attack you day and night. And you happened to notice the neighbours had a green soup pool. Can the council please do something about the mozzies.
The council will then have to act for public health reasons (Ross River & Barmah Forest virus). They might spray the area at dusk and do swimming pool checks in the area. eg: they check pool fences for safety and point out green soup and mozzies.

[shnapper20]

great advice, however I did notice the mozzies and bites did reduce once I removed the lights. I had a mate who swore a yard guard light killed off mozzies in his area, I too thought co2 was the only thing that attracted them . I now run a yard guard light on the patio and believe the mozzie problem isnt as bad however maybe the neighbour cleaned up his pool.