fruit fly cultures

wolfie2nd · #1 08-16-2010, 09:56 AM

I made my fruit fly cultures last night waited waited for them to cool and put in anywhere between 75 - 100 woke up this morning and everyone was dead. I used the sticky and broke everything thing down to 1/6 of what they were using. Why would this happen??

beckdg · #2 08-16-2010, 10:30 AM

depends. could be any number of things. i'd make sure any fruit used was cleaned from pesticides (you can peel a banana get pesticides on your hand and transfer it to the fruit inside for example) and that any materials were cleaned and dried before using from now on just in case. it's possible your old culture was too old also.

wolfie2nd · #3 08-16-2010, 10:37 AM

It was a brand new culture and everything was sterilized. I used the one with brewers yeast, potato flakes, sugar and bread yeast. Well its just a trial to see how hard it will be to maintain the flies. I want darts so I figured I'd try to get some cultures going just to see what it was like.

beckdg · #4 08-16-2010, 11:30 AM

how about air flow? is your new lid vented?

wolfie2nd · #5 08-16-2010, 12:17 PM

Tip sure is I cut the hole my self and siliconed screen on the out side ample air flow..

RecycledAgain · #6 08-16-2010, 01:55 PM

? I have never heard of this happening , especially over night. something is missing here.. Temps /air flow/ silicone dry/ did you have some sort of media like coffee filters or excelsior?

Your original culture is fine? I would also request a little more info on your containers.

Dan

wolfie2nd · #7 08-16-2010, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RecycledAgain

? I have never heard of this happening , especially over night. something is missing here.. Temps /air flow/ silicone dry/ did you have some sort of media like coffee filters or excelsior?

Your original culture is fine? I would also request a little more info on your containers.

Dan

I'm using excelsior, and all the silicone has been dry for over a week. They should have ample air flow due to the large holes I cut.
The flies that I seeded the culture with were the melonagasters (miss spelled I'm sure)
The culture was new it just started to mature long enough to get bout 75-100 flies
So I don't know...

RecycledAgain · #8 08-22-2010, 08:03 AM

To be honest , I'm a little baffled. I suggest you give it another try.

Dan

Vince · #9 08-22-2010, 08:49 PM

My understanding is if you are using yeast in the culture it should be left open for 24 hours before introducing any flies. This is due to the fact that the yeast produces CO2 and the concentration can kill off the flies even with ventilation. Hope this helps.

Epiphile · #10 08-22-2010, 10:04 PM

^ This would be my bet as well.