Feeder Blue Bottle Flies

Feeder blue bottle flies are sold on those page as pupae (like cocoons). We also offer them as larvae on another page.

Feeder blue bottle flies are a staple for so many of our small pets and they are so easy to use, but buyer beware, they have a shelf life on the order of weeks to a month and some people struggle with them. Please read below and maybe even watch the video about how best to use them and extend their viability.

$7 for 100 lavae.

It’s okay to use the $16 No Live Guarantee 2 Day shipping option for this cheaper (living) product. But we cannot guarantee they will survive summer shipping and so you are taking your chances if you don’t order them with overnight, sorry. We do ship them with ice packs but these do little in a 2 day shipment, which is really 3 days in the box. Select a Hold for Pick Up Location during checkout if you live in a place with temps over 83 and want to improve your chances on a successful delivery with the cheaper shipping option.

Feeder blue bottle flies are sold as pupae. For best results, never put them in a refrigerator as that will reduce the hatch rates more and more, with time.

But you still can place larvae, pupae and adult flies in the refrigerator to extend their lives, up to a point. These pupae should be removed from the refrigerator every day or so for an hour to help them continue to develop. When you want them to hatch for sure, leave them out of the fridge. Depending on their developmental progress, they will hatch within a few days generally although it can take a couple weeks sometimes.

Blue bottle flies are great feeders for many things that may be less interested in crawling foods. They arrive in the convenient life stage of pupae. These are like cocoons as the photo on this page reflects. They then hatch out as adult flies usually within about 5 days unless you place them in the refrigerator full-time which will pause their development into adults. In this way you can extend their usefulness for 3 to 6 weeks, but you should remove them from the fridge for an hour each day to allow them to continue to develop. They do have a shelf life and leaving them in the fridge too long at any stage may cause them to dry up because fridges run fans to evaporate moisture.

Simple to use. Just add as many pupae to your pet’s enclosure as you wish, or hatch them in a separate container first (recommended). Warmer temps will cause them to hatch/emerge more quickly. Once hatched, adults can also be stored in the fridge to prolong their lives. A bit of sponge dipped in sugar water will give them a little hydration and energy and help to extend their lives.

I repeated some of the care tips above because, frankly, people struggle with these for some reason. The video below may be helpful to explain or re-explain the points above, including factors of nuance like the temp of your fridge, etc.