- Joined
- Jul 24, 2002
- Messages
- 2,363
Here's a little tip I discovered due to my recent explosion of scorpion births. I currently have about 200 2nd and 3rd instar scorpions that need to get fed if I want them to survive. I usually let them canibalize themselves down to more manageable numbers but with these recent batches I have wanted to try to rear as many as possible.
Pinhead crickets are relatively easy to raise but need quite a bit of setup to get startd and are somwwhat difficult to collect when they hatch out...evne when using straws etc. If I were to buy them it would cost a fortune for what I would get out of it.
I decided to try using wingless fruit flys knowing that they almost always climb the sides of the container and therefore become useless to the baby scorpions. I thought of many ways how this could be avoided but discovered the easiest and best soultion by accident.
The natural behavior of the wingless fruit flys is to climb to the tops of the containers...or so you would think...in actuality it is to climb to the highest point...makes sense.
In each of the baby scorpion enclosures I have small pebbles or other objects to create lots of hides. What I discovered is that when the piles of pebbles or other objects was in the middle of the enclosure away from the sides the fruit flys climb to the high points and stay there.
So what I have done is to make small piles of hides in the centers of the enclosures for the baby scorpions to hide in. I make the piles out of objects the scorpions can easily climb such at pebbles, bark and peat seedling cups. I keep my fruit colony in its original container.
When I want to feed some of the fruit flys to the babies I gently tap the fruit fly container to get them off the top and sides and quickly open it and pour some on the little piles in the scorpion enclosures. You need put paper towel or cloth under the scorpion container lid to prevent escape of the ones that will still cilimb the sides and remember to close both lids quickly to prevent the rest of the flys from escaping. But so far this method seems to be working and allows the babies to feed on the wingless fruit flys by provding little feeding stations in their containers.
I'll keep everyone updated as I continue to try this method.
John
];')
Pinhead crickets are relatively easy to raise but need quite a bit of setup to get startd and are somwwhat difficult to collect when they hatch out...evne when using straws etc. If I were to buy them it would cost a fortune for what I would get out of it.
I decided to try using wingless fruit flys knowing that they almost always climb the sides of the container and therefore become useless to the baby scorpions. I thought of many ways how this could be avoided but discovered the easiest and best soultion by accident.
The natural behavior of the wingless fruit flys is to climb to the tops of the containers...or so you would think...in actuality it is to climb to the highest point...makes sense.
In each of the baby scorpion enclosures I have small pebbles or other objects to create lots of hides. What I discovered is that when the piles of pebbles or other objects was in the middle of the enclosure away from the sides the fruit flys climb to the high points and stay there.
So what I have done is to make small piles of hides in the centers of the enclosures for the baby scorpions to hide in. I make the piles out of objects the scorpions can easily climb such at pebbles, bark and peat seedling cups. I keep my fruit colony in its original container.
When I want to feed some of the fruit flys to the babies I gently tap the fruit fly container to get them off the top and sides and quickly open it and pour some on the little piles in the scorpion enclosures. You need put paper towel or cloth under the scorpion container lid to prevent escape of the ones that will still cilimb the sides and remember to close both lids quickly to prevent the rest of the flys from escaping. But so far this method seems to be working and allows the babies to feed on the wingless fruit flys by provding little feeding stations in their containers.
I'll keep everyone updated as I continue to try this method.
John
];')
