Bugs in the FF culture?

[River Dane]

Hey everyone,

A couple weeks ago, I was feeding some fruit flies to my Venus Flytraps outside, and while the habitat was open, this weird bug flew in. I couldn’t remove it because it was quite small, and figured it was an accident and would die in a short while. Today, though, I saw more of them crawling around on the lid and sides (outside and inside. They squeezed out under the lid) of the Fruit fly culture. 

Just want to make sure they don’t pose a threat to my Mantids, me, or the fruit flies. I’m in Southern California, if that helps. Anyone know what they are?

EDIT: this is 15x macro.

 

[Predatorhousepet]

No idea what the bug is but it shouldn't be a problem unless it starts to take over and outcompete the fruit flies, the same as if mites were to get in. Just keep an eye on it. If it starts to gets bad you could try putting the entire culture in the fridge to knock them out and either pick out as many of the unwanted bugs as you can or gather a batch of fruit flies minus the bugs to make a clean culture and throw out the old one.

 

[MantisGirl13]

I agree with Predatorhousepet. Making a fresh culture would ba a good idea.

- MantisGirl13

 

[River Dane]

Thanks for the help! I made a new culture, and I don’t think any transferred over. So far, the flies left in the original culture seem unaffected. 

 

[Predatorhousepet]

Great! Glad you could make the new culture successfully, hopefully you are correct in that none transferred over. You can still feed your mantises from the old culture until the new one establishes itself. There are very few species of bugs that are harmful for a mantis to eat and it is usually easy to identify which ones are toxic because they are often brightly colored. How big are these bugs in relation to the fruit flies?

 

[MantisGirl13]

I am glad that the new culture is unaffected. You should also maybe try keeping the new culture in a different spot so the little insects won't find it.

- MantisGirl13

 

[Tau874]

I wonder if that’s a variety of grain/flour beetle.  Pest control sites mention they are attracted to yeast and can infest it.  

 

[River Dane]

@Predatorhousepet Yeah, I’ll use fruit flies from the old culture until I see maggots in the new one. As for the size, I think they’re the same length as the hydei (minus the wings), but much thinner and less bulky.

@MantisGirl13 Yeah, definitely. Hopefully they won’t find it. 

@Tau874 Could be. It actually looks pretty similar based in Google Images. But I’m not sure, I didn’t use any yeast or flour in this one. Would they still be attracted to it? It’s a mixture of banana, applesauce, and oatmeal.