Today is the first day I notice the maggots as I was testing my new set of Pro Optic Extension tubes with my 90mm macro lens. I tried them with the 60mm macro and there's relatively useless (at least for my purposes) because I have to work too closely with them.
I bought one liter of the culture mix for about $12. You can make your own. Here's a recipe: http://www.petfish.net/articles/Foods_And_Feeding/fruit_fly.php Culturing the flightless fruit flies (to feed to the mantids)is almost as interesting as watching the mantids! The speed of reproduction is awesome. Click on "next" to see a two week old culture that was started with more of the fruit flies. I started this one with only 5 flies and was afraid after several days that I might not have a female among them, so I added more flies (yesterday). Fears were unfounded because these maggots had to have been generated by a female from the first 5 flies. You're advised to start a culture with at least 10 flies. Very simple to make the culture - you just mix one part of the culture with one part water and add a few grains of yeast.