Culture Mold

[DefyTheNorms]

I was running low of hydei, so I picked up a vial fruit flies from Pet Smart to tide me over until my new cultures arrive. I got home, opened it and dropped 3 in with my shield nymph. The next day when I opened it, I caught a whiff and realized that it smelled moldy. I can't see mold, but I can definitely smell it. My mantis ate 2 of the 3 flies I gave her.  Should I be worried? And I assume the flies in the culture should be discarded as well?

 

[Krissim Klaw]

I would advise not to intentionally feed fruit flies from a moldy culture, although I would say it is likely pretty low risk that your mantis will have an issues. To an extent fruit flies are pretty tough and resilient against mold but eventually it will out compete them for the resources of the media and the culture will die. A lot of people don't like to use flies from moldy cultures to start new ones because of the risk they might spread the mold to the new culture, but I tend to feel if you are using a good mold inhibitor in the new culture this usually isn't a problem.

 

[DefyTheNorms]

I would advise not to intentionally feed fruit flies from a moldy culture, although I would say it is likely pretty low risk that your mantis will have an issues. To an extent fruit flies are pretty tough and resilient against mold

Thank you. I don't think I would have used the flies had I noticed beforehand. I've thrown the culture away. I really don't want to risk anything. Especially since I'm only 12 days into mantis keeping and worried about everything lol