Re: Fruit flies as food/nuisance

[Barry Cooper <bjc3 at cornell_edu>]

Lee,

to get rid of them you might try somehow suspending one of those bird 
protectors (small flat cans with paradichlorbenzene in them) in the 
culture. This trick was posted by one of our regular participants, but I 
apologize that I can't recall who at the moment. It was suggested for 
eliminating mites etc from grindal worm cultures. I had a problem with 
small black flies in my grindal cultures. I had tried mothballs to no 
effect. I tried the bird protectors (which are used to keep mites off caged 
pet birds) and it killed and eliminated the flies without harming the 
grindals. For a microworm culture, it might be tricky to suspend the can in 
the smaller culture container. Perhaps it could be stuck to the under 
surface of the lid somehow.

Barry

At 10:49 AM 8/10/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> I have an infestation of WINGED fruit flies that flourish in my microworm
> cultures. They are able to get in and out through pin point size holes and 
> less
> than visible gaps in shoe box lids even though I made them tighter with an
> extra poly film. Now if I could only get them to fly in to the space above 
> the
> water surface to get them within target range of the top dwelling killies. 
> I have
> fed the larvae of the fruit flies to fish who devour them ravenously. I do
> object to them flying around the fish room and my wife has been very 
> tolerant,
> but she also does not appreciate them. Is there an opportunity for those with
> the wingless variety to combine microworm and fruit fly cultures?
>
> Lee Harper
> Media, PA
> USA
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Barry J. Cooper, Prof. Emeritus, Dept. Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University
Adjunct faculty, College of Veterinary Medicine, Oregon State University
Home address: 27505 Riggs Hill Rd., Sweet Home, OR 97386 (bjc3 at cornell_edu)


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