Harvesting wild food - (1st thread)

[KukaaKatchou]

Come on over - have an infestation of those damn fruit flies right now >(

[rosy delta]

take a quart jar, make a funnel out of paper, tape it well so no place is open except the top and bottom, put it in the jar,,, after you put banana peel or something like that, tape around the top so nothing can escape and wait. the little fools get in but never figure out how to get out. just toss them out every now and then

[KukaaKatchou]

I have my trap baited with an apple slice ... but these guys are ignoring it for the most part .... where is a spider when you need one?

[MSG]

KK before your FF trap will work, you need to eliminate all other sources of temptation/food for these flies. Dirty dishes in the sink, little pots of water, etc....

I wouldn't waste a good slice of apple. The FF prefer things that are rotten, that's why people suggest using cider vinegar or bad wine.

This is what I do.... I eat the apple FIRST and the core part you can't really eat, place that piece in the jar, pour a little bit of cider vinegar in there or a tbsp of old wine and cover it with saran wrap.

Poke about a 12-30 holes in the saran wrap & fruit flies will find a way to get inside.

This will take about 12-24 hours to work. Once they're inside, you can cover the top of the jar with new plastic wrap and then feed the flies to your fish.

My fish seemed to enjoy the wine infused ff's.

[Olympia]

I eat everything but the stem, why waste a perfectly good apple core?

Curious how you guys PUT these flies in the tank, I just see myself failing at this part.

[MSG]

oh, I forgot to put in once you cover the top of your ff bait container with a fresh sheet of saran wrap.... make sure it's tight and put the jar/bait container in your freezer for a good 2 hours. That should be enough to stun the flies so they can't fly off.

Once they're frozen/stunned you can just take your finger and get the flies and dip them in the betta tank.

Make sure not to get the flies that are actually submerged in the wine/vinegar. The ones that are stuck to the side of the jar would be perfect. I use clear glasses about the length of my finger.

I hope you know apple seeds have traces of arsenic in them. I still like to chew up the seeds because they have a weird subtle but pleasant almond extract flavor.

You can use banana stems too, but sometimes worms hatch out of the stems. Pretty nasty stuff.

[rosy delta]

I've used the vinegar too, and the banana peel works after it gets a little ripe. the saran wrap sounds a lot easier than my funnel trick! have to try it.

[babystarz]

Originally Posted by MSG

I hope you know apple seeds have traces of arsenic in them. I still like to chew up the seeds because they have a weird subtle but pleasant almond extract flavor.

That's the cyanide you're tasting :P

[MSG]

Oh gees, I thought you were joking, I don't usually make it a habit to seek out forms of known toxins to add to my snack list. That is actually what I'm tasting though, I love almond extract type flavors.

All I have to say though is the natural form of cyanide, flavor wise is GOOD.

From now on, I'll be spitting the seeds out instead of chewing them up.

Thanks for the comment I wouldn't have known otherwise.

[fleetfish]

I do the banana trick too - and so far, they have all enjoyed the fruit flies. Although yesterday I slapped a mosquito and it was quite whole and there was no blood inside of it so i dropped it in Balthazar's tank and he gulped it down in one bite :)

Mmmm ... cyanide. It's not much in those seeds to kill you, but if you eat around 10000 of them in one sitting then .... yeah.