My culture died looking for feedback

[Accordionme]

I bought a ghost mantis from bugsincyberspace which came with a small fruit fly culture. My mantis was eating a lot (she's since stopped and just hangs upside down all the time so I think she's molting), but my fruit fly culture has collapsed. The culture seems overrun by what I found on the internet to be called "grain mites" and all of the surfaces are covered in a bit of an orange goo. I was keeping the culture in a drawer and I only watered it once right when I got it (so it went around 7 days with no watering). Was the watering the problem? The light? Something else? 

I'm thankful for any advice.

 

[CosbyArt]

@Accordionme All fruit fly cultures eventually crash and is normal behavior. If you wanted them to continue, flies from the culture must be taken out and added to a new culture with food to start a new one. Some keepers do that on a weekly basis with a few cups or dozens, I do it every couple of weeks, just depends on how many flies you need on hand (as it takes a culture 1 to 2 weeks to start producing new flies).

The white grain mites are a typical pest and show up near the end of a FF culture's life, and if the mites get out of hand they will crash the culture faster as well. It seems everyone has their own tricks to keep the mites in check. In reality it is said the mites exist everywhere naturally but are not noticed until they eat well and begin to produce in large numbers, often in about 3 weeks.

The only problem that caused the mites is their access to a food source, FF cultures are great for them. I do know if the FF cultures are kept warmer like the 80s F the mites tend to populate much quicker. Light, water, etc do not seem to accelerate or slow their population growth - regarding water I never bother to add any once started, but it can help make the fly medium/food last longer.

For information about culturing flies see the thread here...