too much yeast????

[sk8erkho]

I have been using the blue fruit fly culture from Carnivorous Plant website for sometime now but this time around something went wrong. Today I noticed a gross whiteish goo covering the top of the culture. :shock: The flies look okay but whether there are new maggots living under there I can't tell. It is not all throughout the culture just the top layer. Has anyone ever heard of such??? I'm wondering if it is safe to remove the top layer or just toss the whole thing. I am also wondering whether the stuff has/had any effect on the flies. I certainly don't want to give my mantids tainted flies!!!

Anyone???

 

[Rick]

It's fine. Sometimes my cultures develop dark spots, green spots, and white stuff like you mentioned. Never noticed it being a problem. Just keep the culture and see what it does. I wouldn't worry about feeding "tainted" flies.

 

[OGIGA]

I have a culture of fruit flies that have grown a white layer on everything. I'm suspecting that it's mold or something bad because the culture is dead now.

 

[Kevin]

Rick is quite correct. As long as you obtain flies in the culture they are safe to feed (they won't be tainted). You might want to cut down a bit on your yeast - I find the cultures get more slime when I use more yeast. It only take a little bit - 10 to 20 grains of granulated active yeast to start a large culture. Note that the fruit fly larvae do not actually eat the potato medium itself. It is the yeasts and microorganisms that develop in the medium on which they feed. This is why you won't get fruit flies without yeast (unless your container had so fungus/yeast/etc.) in it when you set up the culture.

 

[sk8erkho]

Excellent! Got cha!!

 

[JT]

Rick is quite correct. As long as you obtain flies in the culture they are safe to feed (they won't be tainted). You might want to cut down a bit on your yeast - I find the cultures get more slime when I use more yeast. It only take a little bit - 10 to 20 grains of granulated active yeast to start a large culture. Note that the fruit fly larvae do not actually eat the potato medium itself. It is the yeasts and microorganisms that develop in the medium on which they feed. This is why you won't get fruit flies without yeast (unless your container had so fungus/yeast/etc.) in it when you set up the culture.

Really? i thought the yeast was there to start the decomposition process and the maggots ate the "potato medium" only after it started to rot. hmmm learn something new every day.