Fruit Fly Medium as House Fly Food

[PhilinYuma]

Oh dear, Rebecca and Brian, it's detention for you, i'm afraid.

I want you to stay behind after school and write a short essay on why to NEVER change someone else's formula until you've tried it first.

Water gel is great, but all it provides is water. The gelatine mixture that I describe is a colloid (like Play Dough) which is rich in protein, and carbs when you dissolve some sugar in it. When you make jello for your grand kids, Rebecca, surely you don't boil it? You just sprinkle the gelatine in cold water, so that it doesn't clump, and then stir it over low heat until it dissolves. It doesn't need boiling. There seems to be no point in using agar for such large quantities, since it is very much more expensive.

O.K.. I'll see you after the last bell, but you won't get yr cell phones back until the assignment is completed. You will also be expected to memorize the following sad poem:

Here lies the form of Willy Brown.

Alas he is no more.

The handout said, "Use H20".

Not H2SO4.

 

[angelofdeathzz]

Where do you get these things? I want to go to there.

Not sure if Rebecca carries them, but Joshsfrogs.com has it in several different amounts/sizes.

 

[Malti]

kova

OK. Phil's Philched Phly Phood. I made some larger batches, did a little research and a quick cost analysis.

I guess that most folk know that that nice strawberry Jello that you give yr kids is based on gelatin which is made from boiling cow, sheep, and pig carcases, skin and all.. This is the same nice jelly that you get if you slow-roast (5 hrs at 25)F) a chicken or when you put a pork hock in yr beef stew to thicken it. Yum. It is sold in two forms, gelatin, as made by Knox, -- very expensive at about $11 something for 8ozs or "beef gelatin" perhaps slightly less refined, --less expensive for about $45 for 5lbs.I suggest that you buy the smaller sample first to see if you like it, and then buy the larger, cheaper package after that.

Jello, is much cheaper per oz, because it contains more sugar and flavoring than it does gelatin, but it might be fun to experiment with.

Making Jello (probably a copyright infringement there) with the Knox gelatin uses about 21/2 cups juice to one 1/4 oz pack of gelatin, so that's 28.3Gm (1oz) gelatin to 2400 cc (80 fl ozs) water. I use a much higher ratio, 28,3Gm (4 packets) to only 300 cc water. The reason for this is that it will not melt into a soggy mess in yr enclosure and drown the flies as Jello made in the regular proportions might, and it is much more nutritious, but you may want to do yr own experimentation with the concentration.

The gelatin is mostly protein and trapped water (it's a colloidal solution). Add sugar and you have a nice, nutritious food and safe form of water. I add brewers' yeast, which the flies can dissolve with their spit, and Yen's mix or whatever else suits yr fancy can be added. I prepare the food in a Teflon frying pan so that the layer of gelatine is not too thick and peels off nice and easily (yr SO nee never know!). The solids, like the brewers' yeast, tend to sink to the bottom during cooling (one hour in the refrigerator), so I just turn it upside down and place it in a shallow dish for the flies.

Alas Sporeworld! Yr colored layers of gelatin, with or without sprinkles, will simply become a black mass of flies as soon as you put it in the enclosure. I guess that you can't get any more praise than that.

I think that this is the best fly food that I have ever heard of, but tomorrow, I'll set up two identical cages with about 50 flies in each and provide one with my ff food and a wet sponge and the other with the gelatine food. I shall see if the flies in one live longer than those in the other and let you know!

could you simplify this?

I get you need 4 packets jello (do flies have a favourite?)

yeast (a pinch or an abundant pinch?)

gelatin 2 1/2 cups

water 300ml

am I missing something? and do the flies lay in it? or next to it? (ie can I cover all the base of the container?)

and do flies or maggots need anything else apart from it?

thx

 

[sporeworld]

OK, so I REALLY wanted to do this tonight, but didn't get out shopping, so I made due with what I had. Off the shelf (blueberry) Jello® Brand Gelatin, water and Brewers Yeast. Actually smelled pretty good.

Obviously, I'll stick to Phil's version after tonight, but as a proof-of-concept, I was pretty happy. Mine was a little runny, but flies didn't seem to mind. They didn't swarm all over it, but they also didn't DROWN in it, so THAT's an improvement!

I had my usual Frit Fly medium in a parallel container, and interest was roughly the same. Of course, they were a (wait for it) "captive audience"... :lol:

I kill me...

 

[Malti]

I had my usual Frit Fly medium in a parallel container, and interest was roughly the same. Of course, they were a (wait for it) "captive audience"... :lol:

I kill me...

:lol: :lol:

 

[PhilinYuma]

OK, so I REALLY wanted to do this tonight, but didn't get out shopping, so I made due with what I had. Off the shelf (blueberry) Jello® Brand Gelatin, water and Brewers Yeast. Actually smelled pretty good.

Obviously, I'll stick to Phil's version after tonight, but as a proof-of-concept, I was pretty happy. Mine was a little runny, but flies didn't seem to mind. They didn't swarm all over it, but they also didn't DROWN in it, so THAT's an improvement!

I had my usual Frit Fly medium in a parallel container, and interest was roughly the same. Of course, they were a (wait for it) "captive audience"... :lol:

I kill me...

Yeah, the reason that I use plain gelatine instead of Jello is because the plain gelatine is much cheaper. A packet of gelatine is 100% gelatine; a packet of Jello contains substantially less than 50% gelatine.

The big advantage of this stuff over the fruit fly medium is that it is an excellent source of water and doesn't dry out.

@Malti: No. No jello. 4, 7.2Gm envelopes of pure gelatine

400ccs water (up from 300ccs)

4Tbs sugar

2tbs brewer's yeast.

When I looked at the packet again, I saw that it claims 8Gm protein per packet. Not much for a human, but pretty good for a fly!

 

[Malti]

what is 7.2Gm envelopes of pure gelatine? here we have gelatine in stuff like this

damn I feel so stupid...is Gm grams?

 

[PhilinYuma]

what is 7.2Gm envelopes of pure gelatine? here we have gelatine in stuff like this

damn I feel so stupid...is Gm grams?

Yeah,. I don't think that this brand is sold in the US, but it is commom in Australia, where a tub like that holds 100 grams. Fortunately, 7.2 is almost exactly 1/14 of 1000, so pour the entire contents into a cc measuring cup and divide the volume by 14 and you will come up with about the same weight as the 7.2 gram packet or measure it directly on a gram scale. The flies proably won't notice the difference!

 

[Malti]

Yeah,. I don't think that this brand is sold in the US, but it is commom in Australia, where a tub like that holds 100 grams. Fortunately, 7.2 is almost exactly 1/14 of 1000, so pour the entire contents into a cc measuring cup and divide the volume by 14 and you will come up with about the same weight as the 7.2 gram packet or measure it directly on a gram scale. The flies proably won't notice the difference!

I'm in neither thanks mate!

 

[Malti]

I cooked a batch - 35g gelatine, 500ml water, 5tbs sugars, 2 1/2 tbs yeast...looking good

 

[hibiscusmile]

I bad girl!

 

[Malti]

I cooked a batch - 35g gelatine, 500ml water, 5tbs sugars, 2 1/2 tbs yeast...looking good

this batch is liquifiying for me after some hours outside - does that happen to yours to Phil? room temp here is about 86F (30C) top - 69.8F (21C) least heat

 

[PhilinYuma]

this batch is liquifiying for me after some hours outside - does that happen to yours to Phil? room temp here is about 86F (30C) top - 69.8F (21C) least heat

sorry missed this earlier. My bug room temp was 30C today and the gelatine didn'tliquify. Your mis is exactly the same as mine, so "i guess that there is something different about the gelatine. Try 50ccs less (450ccs) and see what happens. :mellow:

 

[PeterF]

Could humidity make a difference? You're not exactly in the jungle Phil.