# Culture.... but no flies.



## Mantis_Whisper (Oct 4, 2007)

I got a culture ages ago from Nick.

It was going great and I had so many flies but now there's none at all. I saw about seven the other day but I guess they died. There's about half the food left too. There's no flies and one thing I noticed are there's really tiny bugs. They're white and about the size of a peroid mabye even smaller.

Anyone delt with this before? I want to know if I have to get a new culture.


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## Rick (Oct 4, 2007)

Sounds like you have mites in the culture. I got them once or twice when I first started keeping fruitflies a few years ago. Never had em since. All cultures stop producing new flies after while. Before they do I start a new one and the cycle continues. You will not want to start a new culture from your current one due to the mites.


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## Mantis_Whisper (Oct 4, 2007)

Rick said:


> Sounds like you have mites in the culture. I got them once or twice when I first started keeping fruitflies a few years ago. Never had em since. All cultures stop producing new flies after while. Before they do I start a new one and the cycle continues. You will not want to start a new culture from your current one due to the mites.


Alright Thank you.

I guess I'll be cleaning it out and using if for whatever.


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## Ian (Oct 5, 2007)

I find that mites do not always kill off the culture if they are in small numbers (although they will multiply).

How long have you had the culture?


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## Ben.M (Oct 5, 2007)

I've got loads of the lil white things in my culture, no wonder i've only got 2 maggots :lol:


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## Rick (Oct 5, 2007)

Well......like I said. Throw that out and start fresh. Get rid of that container or at least clean it well.


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## Red (Oct 5, 2007)

and some method to kill the mites?

my cultures breed it too... &lt;_&lt; 

thanks


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## Mantis_Whisper (Oct 6, 2007)

Rick said:


> Well......like I said. Throw that out and start fresh. Get rid of that container or at least clean it well.


I'm in the middle of doing the distgusting task of cleaning out my cultures. Bleh.

where do you get your cultures Rick?


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## Galactic Lord Xenu (Oct 10, 2007)

Can the mites hurt mantids?


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## OGIGA (Oct 11, 2007)

Mantis_Whisper said:


> I'm in the middle of doing the distgusting task of cleaning out my cultures. Bleh.where do you get your cultures Rick?


Why clean the cultures? I'd just start over with a new container.


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## Mantis_Whisper (Oct 11, 2007)

OGIGA said:


> Why clean the cultures? I'd just start over with a new container.


I use them as cages for my mantids after throughly cleaning them. then I remove the fabric part and glue wire mesh on it.

I'm short on cages and really cheap so I bacisally recyle my clutures and old bottles.


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## OGIGA (Oct 11, 2007)

Mantis_Whisper said:


> I'm short on cages and really cheap so I bacisally recyle my clutures and old bottles.


I use empty water bottles to culture FFs. You'll see them in a few hours.


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## Mantis_Whisper (Oct 11, 2007)

OGIGA said:


> I use empty water bottles to culture FFs. You'll see them in a few hours.


That's a pretty smart idea. how do you vent it though?

OH! I got the parcel but it's at my father's office, so I should be getting it in a hour or so. I'll PM about how everything went.


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## OGIGA (Oct 11, 2007)

Mantis_Whisper said:


> OH! I got the parcel but it's at my father's office, so I should be getting it in a hour or so. I'll PM about how everything went.


Awesome! Hope they're doing great!



Mantis_Whisper said:


> That's a pretty smart idea. how do you vent it though?


You'll see. Okay, I know everybody else wants to know. I use a razor to cut a hole through the cap and hot-glue a screen or something similar over the hole.


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## Mantis_Whisper (Oct 11, 2007)

OGIGA said:


> Awesome! Hope they're doing great!You'll see. Okay, I know everybody else wants to know. I use a razor to cut a hole through the cap and hot-glue a screen or something similar over the hole.


I finally got them. They're all doing great and they're all very hyper.  I'm onlt worried about one cause he holds his leg up all the time, hopefully that will fix itself with time.

I saw, very nice. Thank you so much for the extra cultures!


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## OGIGA (Oct 11, 2007)

Mantis_Whisper said:


> I finally got them. They're all doing great and they're all very hyper.  I'm onlt worried about one cause he holds his leg up all the time, hopefully that will fix itself with time.I saw, very nice. Thank you so much for the extra cultures!


You're welcome. I hope he will fix himself too. In fact, the mantis you see on my avatar was doing that a few weeks after he became an adult. Then, he fixed himself. Actually, here's his picture...


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## Mantis_Whisper (Oct 11, 2007)

OGIGA said:


> You're welcome. I hope he will fix himself too. In fact, the mantis you see on my avatar was doing that a few weeks after he became an adult. Then, he fixed himself. Actually, here's his picture...


Yep that's what mine is doing. He probably will fix his leg. But thank you so much for the orchids. I've been wanting some for ages but everyone I asked was not selling or had none left. It was getting quite depressing.

I'll inform you when his leg gets fixed.


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## OGIGA (Oct 11, 2007)

You are very welcome. Glad you got what you wanted! :lol:


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## Mantis_Whisper (Oct 11, 2007)

OGIGA said:


> You are very welcome. Glad you got what you wanted! :lol:


Yep.


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