Idea for FFs

[Jackson]

So my parents hate me having FFs in my room, the smell can be pretty bad i admit. so i was thinking about putting them in my garage.

Now i know the temperature would slow the hatch rate right down but i was thinking about getting a polystyrene box with a heat mat in the bottom, fill the box up with vermiculite or something then place the jars of fruit flys in the vermiculite.

Now the only problem i can see with this is that the box would obviously have the polystyrene lid on it to keep the heat in. Do light levels affect fruit fly reproduction?

Any comments?

Thanks

Jackson

 

[Lukony]

I use to keep my fruitflies in the garage and never had problems. It gets cold here during the night too. I use to hate the smell because I could smell it furmenting.

 

[Jackson]

well how cold is cold for you?

it will get down to 3 degree Celsius = 37.4 degree Fahrenheit roughly around here.

Will too hot a temperature affect them?

The main thing that concerned me was the light, do the need some to breed?

 

[Lukony]

No, I know for a fact they don't need light for breeding. I use to keep mine in vials and push the vials down in a padded holder that allowed no light at all for them to get in. Perhaps try keeping them in a cupboard in the garage with a blanket wrapped around them.

 

[Jackson]

Well, i'd rather use a heatmat since i've got one spare. It should work out alright fingers crossed.

 

[Rick]

What are you keeping them in now? I breed my cultures in 32 oz deli cups. Mine don't smell unless I put my nose an inch away from the cup.

 

[Lukony]

Ya, but how often do you change the substance rick? Mine started to smell like apple dear there for a while. Then I decided to buy some from pecto. I think they have some good cultures.

 

[Rick]

Ya, but how often do you change the substance rick? Mine started to smell like apple dear there for a while. Then I decided to buy some from pecto. I think they have some good cultures.

When the substrate dries up and cannot produce anymore flies I change it. But by that time there is hardly anything left. I get mine from carolina.com

 

[themann42]

mine can smell pretty nasty too. i noticed it smells worse when i use distilled water instead of tap, but it also increases production a lot. i mix my own media.

rick you say u buy pre-mixed media from carolina? there site is a pain to navigate i couldn't find it. i think i'm gonna look around at some places and try the pre-mixed stuff to see how that does.

 

[Lukony]

water? I use the old mix olf apple sauce, oatmeal and some yeast ontop. Generally I will toss in some diffent fruits into the mixture.

 

[Jackson]

I dont use pre-mixed stuff. Its hard to get over here anyways.

I just mash up banana with a little bit of yeast on top. I find putting a few really small holes in the bottom of the container and puttting a tray underneath, this helps remove any alchohol from fermentation.

 

[Lukony]

Try using some oatmeal mix with applesauce. THe sprinkle some yeast only on the top. The way you are going it can cause a pretty bad smell.

 

[Jackson]

Tried that method before, i found i had less FFs than i did using my banana mix.

Seriously, there are thousands of different ways to breed FFs. Each persons is different from the next.

 

[yen_saw]

Hi Jackson, i have the same question about ff culture when starting the mantis hobby. BUt you were luckier than me as i don't get much help from the forum when i posted that question. So i went and did a experiment and found out that they ff breed with or without light source providing the temperature is the same for both conditions. I have ff culture matured faster in my garage (alomst zero light) than in my insect room cos it is warmer in the garage. BUt having a light source sounds more reasonable as light actually produce certain heat. As for the smell, i have always ordered the media from net so smell is not a problem. But occasionally it gets bad especially when the media is molded apparently due to excess yeast, so what i did was to add yeast two days after preparing the culture.