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Re: Fruit fly culture

Non-member submission from [Rhonda Wilson <rhondawi at m6_sprynet.com>]   

>  Original text: 
>  Date: Sat, 04 Apr 1998 11:15:59 -0700
>  From: Rhonda Wilson <rhondawi at m6_sprynet.com>
>  To: Live-Foods at actwin_com
>  Subject: Re:  Fruit fly culture
>  
>  Dave,
>  
>  
>  > Has anyone ever tried co-culturing micro worms and fruit flies
together?
>  
>  I don't think that would work too well as the fruit flies are really
messy 
>  and
>  everytime you tried to get the worms out the fruitflies would be hopping
out
>  all over you too. I just use old jars from the kitchen, pickles and 
>  mayonase,
>  etc. And keep a number of both cultures.
>  
>  
>  > Any thoughts on instant potato media?  I use it occasionally (when I
>  > have a large population of flies going) but have inconsistent results
>  > with it.  I use one part potatos one part water a teaspoon of sugar
and
>  > a pinch of yeast but the cultures mold or get covered with bacteria
>  > rather quickly and only produce a few flies.  When I use Carolina's
>  > media I get hundreds of flies and several generations.  I would like
to
>  > get the instant media down before I run out of commercial media, help!
>  
>  I went to a talk recently by Charlie Grimes on live foods and he
mentioned 
>  the
>  instant potato mix as a good media. I haven't tried it yet. I use baby 
>  cereal
>  (Gerber Rice, I had some left over from my last baby. :)  on the
microworms 
>  and
>  it works great, I just take what's left of the old culture, as long as
it 
>  isn't
>  too gross, and mix it with the cereal mix, a good portion of yeast and
some
>  sugar. I tried not adding new yeast and didn't get as a large a number
of
>  worms. I haven't had any problems with these getting moldy at all. I
think 
>  the
>  yeast may help control mold but that is just a totally unscientific
guess.
>  
>  I also find the commercial media stuff works really well with the 
>  fruitflies. I
>  have started experimenting with different media for them. My
"experiment" 
>  over
>  the last week was with citrus. I happen to live in AZ and have several 
>  citrus
>  trees in my yard, so last weekend when I made some fresh lemonaid I
saved 
>  the
>  rinds with pulp still attatched and droped them into a jar with a few
>  fruitflies. I would have to say that this really doesn't work at all. I
have
>  seen wild fruit flies on fruits that have fallen so I thought it might
work.
>  But what happened was a large batch of mold grew and the fruit flies
died.
>  
>  Rhonda
>  
>  --
>  ALA, Convention April 24-26 1998
>  http://petsforum.com/ala/
>  
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>  
>  

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