Smelly Fruit Fly Cultures

[cdcrocks]

My melanogaster cultures seem to be fine other than the fact that they are super smelly. It nauseates me every time I go to feed or even just have them on the table next to me, closed! Is there anything I can do about this, or is it something I'll have to learn to deal with?

And how substantial would the difference in production be if I put the cultures under a warm light? I've been having to feed my babies maggots lately and I do NOT appreciate this. And I'd prefer to save electricity if warming the cultures won't make a huge difference.

Sorry if this has already been answered, I'm short on time and I didn't see the answer in the first few pages of topics.

 

[Shadow]

I don't know mine are really smelly i just deal wit it

 

[DinehCaveman]

Is this a petco culture aka Fruit Fly Company, if it is, the smell is their medium combined with the smell of maggots waste gasses. The repashy medium has sort of a honey mixed with banana type smell.

 

[cdcrocks]

I have a few petco vials and some I bought online that came with deli containers. The deli containers smell worse, but that might just be because they're older.

 

[Shadow]

I get mine from petsmart

 

[Rick]

I noticed a smell with cultures but it was never that bad. You may try a change in medium or it may be that some people are just more sensitive to the smell than others.

 

[HungryGhost]

The only time my cultures have an offensive smell is when they are old. I usually get rid of my old sticky cultures.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Put it somewhere else? They all smell. You should never have to feed maggots. Make new cultures and get rid of that one. What are u making it with, or are u buying it?

 

[cdcrocks]

The label on the worst smelling one says www.SilkwormShop.com. I'll get the remaining couple of flies out of there and probably try washing and reusing the container, even though I know that's way more work than I should be putting into this, I have no similar cups and need flies ASAP.
I ordered some dry medium that you make yourself from the same place, and I have it prepared in a second cup that's pretty much identical. It's a week or two younger and doesn't smell nearly as awful.
I'll try making my own culture tonight, I'm going shopping today so I'll get some potato flakes as that seems to be what most people's recipes call for.
Am I making bad choices here? I'm a little desperate at this point, I was up till 2 am last night catching and feeding my nymphs leafhoppers I attracted using a bright light pointed at a bedsheet... Even after that, there are a dozen or so who didn't get food because I got too tired. I was forced to just mist them and go to bed.

I added a picture, the vials on the left with blue medium are from petco, the middle one is my old stinky one and the one on the right is my less old, less stinky one.

 

[PlayingMantis]

I use Rapeshy's Superfly mix which does smell a little bit, but it is bearable. If I don't want to smell it, I just hold my nose and quickly knock out some flies into a feeding cup, and then I quickly close the lid of the culture. Then I allocate the flies from the feeding cup to the individual containers.

I also tried making my own mix using bananas, oat meal, apple sauce, and a pinch of yeast. The mix smelled horrible for the first week or so, but after the flies became established, the smell wasn't too bad. A little worse than Repashy's mix, but not as bad.

The cultures from Petco (in the plastic bottles) aren't too bad, but the little vials from Petsmart stink to high heaven.

Overall, I believe the smell depends on how old the mix is, the temperature/humidity (higher = worse, at least in my experience), and what is actually in the medium (some matter may emit more "noxious" gases as it decomposes).

 

[hibiscusmile]

Mine don't smell to bad, or I am used to it? Not really sure, sometimes they smell like baby poo, usually not at all. The ones that end up smelling are the ones that don't produce. Which thankful to God I don't have many of those.