Keeping Fruit Flies off Tank Walls! Help please!

[Zappa]

Hey guys,

First post here, and I really hope someone can help me. Ive been raising some frogs from tadpoles I collected, best I can determine at this point they are fowlers or americanus toads. (they have only been froggies for 3 months) The only way to keep them fat and happy is to saturate the tank in fruit flies until they get older and better at hunting.

But here's the problem, the flies immediately crawl up the sides of the tank and hang out at the top or crawl away through cracks. I tried putting a line of Vaseline on the glass but they could crawl right over it. How do i keep the flies from crawling the sides of the tank so that my frogs will have all the flies i put in on the ground and have a fair chance to feast???!!

THANKS for your advice. hope there's a solution!

[Zappa]

I suppose I should also clarify that its a glass aquarium turned terrarium.

[SludgeMunkey]

There is no way to do so.

It helps to shut the lights off when you feed. The flies tend to crawl towards the light.

[Kurt]

You can't stop them from walking out the sides. Most of my fruit fly eating frogs are in critter keepers or faunariums (ones without vents on the sides). I put paper towels between the tops and the rest of the enclosure. If more than one paper towel is needed, then I put masking tape over the perforation between the towels. This will keep the flies inside the cage.
I would not put petroleum jelly in any frogs' cage.

[joshsfrogs]

There are a couple things you can do to lessen the amount of flies crawling up the site. The first thing is to dust your flies with a multi-vitamin and calcium supplement. The dust will weight the flies down enough that they will have to clean themselves off before they can climb up the side.

You can also keep the flies in by adding a piece of fruit to the tank to attract them.

None of these options are full-proof however.

[Kurt]

I have seen them climb up the sides even after they have been dusted. The paper towel thing works perfectly. The only problem I have had is, how do I use this method on larger enclosures? I have managed to use it on large critter keepers and a 2.5-gallon tank, but nothing larger so far.

[Bellerophon]

a feeding station as josh suggested is your best bet. Usually a piece of orange on a dish out in the open is enough to keep them occupied until eaten. If they're not eaten within a few hours then you need to feed less flies more often.