How I make fruit fly medium!

[nympho]

this mixture is brilliant. i made 3 jam jars full two weeks ago following your measures exactly, and have thousands of maggots in each and lots of pupae from about 20 parent flies in each. it doesnt smell at all yet, apart from being a bit vinegerany. you can get that 'masa' stuff in sainsbury's amazingly; couldnt find apple sauce so i liquidized some apples instead.

one problem; how do you stop the maggots crawling up the sides and either drying up or getting out. i came home and picked one jar to look at how they were doing before realising maggots were all over the lid and sides. nice! :angry: i think its because i put some water in as the mixture looked very dry and crusty on top <_<

 

[Ben.M]

I've found that u do need to put some water in every now and again as i does dry up(sainsburys sells masa...well thats gonna save me long trips to the garden center, sainsburys is just around the corner from me )

 

[macro junkie]

hows every ones culture doing./.im thinking about doing one..all tho i been buying them latley and none of them beats grahams one and his dont smell of vinerger?im going to ask him what he puts in it tomorow

 

[nympho]

hows every ones culture doing./.im thinking about doing one..all tho i been buying them latley and none of them beats grahams one and his dont smell of vinerger?im going to ask him what he puts in it tomorow

mine are still not smelling bad which is pretty amazing as i made them ages ago. bit of mold growing on top not much tho. the new flies seem to keeping alive for along time in there too

 

[macro junkie]

mine are still not smelling bad which is pretty amazing as i made them ages ago. bit of mold growing on top not much tho. the new flies seem to keeping alive for along time in there too

how long does culture last?i had new one sent to me last week,..after about 1 week i had sudden burst of them..i used them up now its died donw..how long do they last ?

 

[nympho]

how long does culture last?i had new one sent to me last week,..after about 1 week i had sudden burst of them..i used them up now its died donw..how long do they last ?

too many variables to predict, but mainly it depends how long the adults were laying eggs for and how much medium there is for them to eat. if they layed eggs for three weeks before they died then the new flies will hatch out over three weeks not accounting for competition for lower quality food or other issues like dryness which will slow the later ones down. the new flies may possibly lay another generation to prolong the culture

 

[Matthewtinnion]

I started loads of cultures last week using a (power mix - Apple sauce, banana, brewers yeast, potatoe flakes, molasses, water and vineger)

For one of the mediums I put in some old flies from another culture which was already productive, and from the rest I used flies from a culture from Ricks live food, (The flies were newly hatched mainly from Rick)

The difference was amazing after 3 days the older flies culture has a writhing mess of tini maggots and the others have none, after a week there are hundereds of ful sized maggots on the older container walls and a "moving/wriggling medium" where as the newer flies have only one or two tini maggots so far, Needless to say im a bit gutted I only started one culture with the old flies and 6 with the new flies

I will put some pics up, and a linc to the medium I used in a minute, I would recommend it.

 

[nympho]

I started loads of cultures last week using a (power mix - Apple sauce, banana, brewers yeast, potatoe flakes, molasses, water and vineger)For one of the mediums I put in some old flies from another culture which was already productive, and from the rest I used flies from a culture from Ricks live food, (The flies were newly hatched mainly from Rick)

The difference was amazing after 3 days the older flies culture has a writhing mess of tini maggots and the others have none, after a week there are hundereds of ful sized maggots on the older container walls and a "moving/wriggling medium" where as the newer flies have only one or two tini maggots so far, Needless to say im a bit gutted I only started one culture with the old flies and 6 with the new flies

I will put some pics up, and a linc to the medium I used in a minute, I would recommend it.

hi, what temp do you keep them at may i ask. development is quite slow at room temp, i definitely dont see maggots in 3 days. see them after 2 weeks more like. they get there eventually though

 

[hibiscusmile]

The reason why one gave you maggots is easy. Look closely at the flies crawling around the containers, notice that the older ones have fat white bellys! They are full of eggs and ready to lay, the others (newbies) are not. The only reason you have more maggots in the one is because the older flies have been breeding and the younger ones haven't. It is not the medium that made the difference.

 

[macro junkie]

Think I will just stick to buying a big bag of the commercial stuff. It's inexpensive.

no its not...in the uk there 2.50£ per culture,,the amount of mantids i have i need lots of cultures,,makes sense making it my self.i just need a place that sells loads of masa in the uk..

 

[asdsdf]

Rebecca, for some reason, now the culture I make are stinky(With the mdeium you gave me.)(The first one sent, so it sin't the medium.(Because I've made culture with it.))....They like stink in a day....No mold, no nothing. I even took the liberty of using alcohol to clean my cntainers first...Still smells horrible. That happen to anyone?

 

[Sparky]

Rebecca, for some reason, now the culture I make are stinky(With the mdeium you gave me.)(The first one sent, so it sin't the medium.(Because I've made culture with it.))....They like stink in a day....No mold, no nothing. I even took the liberty of using alcohol to clean my cntainers first...Still smells horrible. That happen to anyone?

If its in an opened aerated jar or container it will probably smell due to the amount of space its in. The chemical reactions between 2 or more things mixed together can cause things to happen. For example a confined oddly shapend container is less likely to smell than a wide 32 oz container.

 

[asdsdf]

But then I've always made my culture with the same type of container... :mellow:

 

[Sparky]

What kind?

 

[OGIGA]

Are you guys talking about D. Hydei or D. Melanogaster to start your cultures? I find that D. melanogasters are pretty fast and D. Hydei take freaking forever.

Also, are you guys washing and reusing old containers? Opening an old container is already kind of scary... I just get a new container. My containers are quite cheap... water bottles.

 

[Mantida]

The medium I make for my fruit flies with my own stuff always smells like vinegar.

Maybe something got into your medium?

 

[macro junkie]

I started loads of cultures last week using a (power mix - Apple sauce, banana, brewers yeast, potatoe flakes, molasses, water and vineger)

can i use

Apple sauce, banana, brewers yeast, potatoe flakes, water,vinerger and honey..would that work?i notice u dont use honey?how comes?how is your medium/culture doing?

 

[asdsdf]

I've always used the 32 ounce thingies. :mellow:

 

[Sparky]

hey guys, I left my V8 bottle outside and i burned a little hole in it. I guess some fruit flies found they're way in and they multiplied. I don't want to touch it though. Once that bottle is budged. "VOOSH"

 

[hibiscusmile]

A lot of cultures smell but not all of them, they smell like vinegar or sometimes just moldy. I dont know what causes it, maybe sometimes to much yeast will make them smell too.