Fruit fly questions

[MantisMart]

1) does using bananas and potato flakes make an ok media? I’ve been using it for a while and it’s been ok...

But is there any other better and simple media’s out there? I want very simple but affective. I don’t need the absolute BEST media, just a decent long living one.

2) do cultures die out over time? I’m seeing some dead flies on the walls of the container and I’m wondering if it’s just due to it dying out, or the media got old.

3) Do the flies become flying over generations? Half my flies fly, and half don’t. I bought them flightless at first.

Thanks for the time

 

[MantisGirl13]

1. There are hundreds of recipes, and if what you use works for you, there's no need to change it.

2. Yeah, most cultures last a few weeks to a month.

3. I've had this happen before too. I think they mutate sometimes. 

- MantisGirl13 

 

[Pendragon]

In my experience the culture is good for 2 or 3 weeks in a deli cup. Always start a new culture once the first is really at its peak... As far as flightless ff goes what I understand is that warm conditions can very easily allow them to resume flight. ( They have wings for a reason) but placing the culture cup in the fridge for 5 minutes or so makes them dormant enough to tap a few in with your nymphs.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Fruit flies will become fliers if another type mixes with them. Sometimes wild flies get mixed in with a culture. Regular melnogaster is not a flyer and does not have wings.

 

[Introvertebrate]

Do the flies become flying over generations? Half my flies fly, and half don’t. I bought them flightless at first.

Yeah, as hibiscusmile said, a flier must have snuck into your culture at some point.  Non-fliers have been selectively bred to not fly.  However, the flying gene is dominant, so when fliers mate with non-fliers, invariably, their offspring will all be fliers.

 

[MantisMart]

Ok. Thanks

 

[MrGhostMantis]

Melenogasters can actually become fliers again or pretty much devolve when kept at temps of like, 85F. I had it happen to me last month. Whole culture turned to fliers. I have never seen fruit flies in my house that weren’t my own.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I have to disagree with that. I have been using the same flies for years with no new one and none have become fliers. I would assume a flyer got in unnoticed.

 

[Introvertebrate]

This is from the dart frog guys, and they really know their fruit flies:

"For all feeder strains, flightlessness and/or winglessness are genetic traits which do not require a specific temperature range to be expressed (or fail to be expressed, depending on how you look at it).  They will not spontaneously reappear on you without the introduction of new genetic material (i.e., a flyer)."