Hello! Welcome to my Pet Fly blog, where I share my personal humor and experiences with pet fly ownership. From traveling with a pet fly, to caring for a sick pet fly, it’s all about the frivolity and unexpected pleasures of keeping these unlikely little bugs as pets!
Learn all the nutty ins-n-outs of pet fly keeping and miniature hobby crafting in The Official FFRA Fly Roper’s Manual, $7.99 (links to Lulu.com)
Pet Fly Website: Squidoo.com/PetFlyOnAString
.
I have been swamped in the care of my multiple-disabled mother since April of this year. Although I have moved her into assisted living (in July), I have still been shouldered with clearing her estate, and getting her to her many doctor appointments. As I am her only family in the state of Oregon, the whole overwhelming ordeal has fallen on my shoulders.
Hence, my business, websites, and life got put on absolute hold this year.
I never did get a batch of pupae from the bait bucket. Just too dang busy to make it a priority.
Did catch a BIG fly in the house two days ago… reminded me that life can be so much fun even in the middle of hardships!
Well, my little friend Maybell passed away on Mother’s Day 
. I haven’t decided, yet, whether to turn her into a gilded charm, or what. I am bummed I didn’t take the time to have her do a fly-finger painting for me!
Such is fly-keeping.
My bait bucket has not produced yet. It has just been too cold a spring. I think I’ll refill it and try again soon, though. I’m really hoping to start a healthy colony of BIG flies that I can offer to others. If nothing else the maggots make excellent feed for all kinds of animals.
As my darling husband came to bed at 2AM, which is our changing of the guards upon occasion, he sheepishly confessed to taking my Maybell for a spin the evening before. He has always gotten a kick out of me and my pet flies, but this is like taking the next step… playing with the bugs when no one is looking!
Maybell is a really fun leashed flier. Very strong, and all over the place.
I knew my honey would catch on, lol. Yahoo!
My bait bucket doesn’t seem to be producing yet, I let all my geriatric flies go, and Shakespeare just died a few days ago. What’s a fly roper to do?
Catch a spring Rogue!
I was happily babysitting my grand-daughter yesterday, when someone let a huge fly in the house. And I mean big enough to carry away my small grandi-kid! So by late afternoon I decided to break out the bug net, and I caught the cow of a bug!
Since she’s bovine huge I decided she needed a cow’s name, too, so Maybell it is.
I had to freeze stun her three times to get her roped… she didn’t even “thaw out” before she started bucking and flying… but I got ‘er!
I don’t generally encourage other people to rope Rogues, as you just don’t know where they’ve been. But I don’t personally have germ phobias, there are no current disease outbreaks being reported, and I’m very good about washing up after handling, so a BIG Rogue like this one is great fun in my book.
Here’s Maybell next to my (deceased) little buddy Shakespeare. She’s a monster!
Well, my little fly buddy Shakespeare finally passed on. He made it to three and a half months old, which is only about ten days shy of my longest living roped fly’s lifespan. So that was a great run!
He was the first fly I ever put a costume on. I did get a snippet on video, which I plan to post to youtube soon.
I decided I am going to silver and mount Shakespeare in a locket with one of the pressed purple flowers shown here. I love these flowers, and Shakespeare looked particularly happy that day making a mess of the flower’s pollen! (He was covered in the pollen by the time I was done taking pictures.)
A perfect memorial for Shakespeare!
I hung my bait bucket up in the back yard yesterday in hopes of attracting larger flesh flies. I’ve only had bottle flies up to now. I want to throw a fly-roping party later this month, so I’m hoping it’s not too cold still to farm for pupae.
Big flesh flies are stronger than bottle flies, and therefore make better party animals!
Instructions for making the bait bucket and indoor net nursery are included in the FFRA Fly Roper’s Manual.
It was such a pretty spring day here in Oregon yesterday that I decided to release my older flies so they could enjoy a bug’s life. Just as my pet fly Shakespeare has reached his 3-month birthday, so had the rest of his litter mates.
I figured that at three months old I’m not likely to rope any more of them, and I don’t need to keep them around just to see now old they will get. So, one by one I blessed the last 21 of them on their way! (They were so used to my hand that most of them just sat with me for a little bit before sailing away 
)
Well, my little fly buddy made it to 3 months old today. I made him fly-size peanut butter and honey muffins, and took him for an outdoor spin today. My little Shakespeare is acting like he won’t be with me much longer, so I celebrate each day I am graced to have his company.
Yes, this is the little fly that sits still to let me pet him – he’s been docile like that since the day I roped him! He’s a good little fly
Happy Birthday Shakespeare!
Spent part of this morning designing reproducible fly pad liners to be sold with display boxes / flats. Here’s a peak:
Up to this point I have chosen to keep “extra” nursery-raised flies in their original net nursery, rather than release them to the winter outdoors, as I never know when I might have need to rope one for a friend, or to rope for a spontaneous fly activity. But I feel like a heel keeping them locked up in such a small and sterile net nursery all their days.
So I have designed a new hanging net nursery. Something roomier for the flies, and more pleasant for human eyes to look at. It has been jokingly dubbed, “the flyviary” by my goofy husband… but I like the name! It fits!
Also, since my flies have demonstrated enjoyment of live plants, I am looking for an air fern to keep in the flyviary, along side the new canopy crib (which will hold pupae during hatching; bought the crib on eBay).
It wasn’t too awful hard to make, but a pattern would be helpful for most folks, so I am looking into possible pattern production.
+ 
= 
