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Re: Mold inhibitor in fruit fly culture
- To: live-foods at actwin_com
- Subject: Re: Mold inhibitor in fruit fly culture
- From: "David W. Webb" <dwebb at ti_com>
- Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 10:33:03 -0600
- Conversation-Id: <199804110420.AAA29637 at acme_actwin.com>
- In-Reply-To: <199804110420.AAA29637 at acme_actwin.com>
Non-member submission from [George Slusarczuk <yurko at warwick_net>]
> Original text:
> Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1998 00:23:20 -0500
> From: George Slusarczuk <yurko at warwick_net>
> To: Live-Foods at actwin_com
> Subject: Re: Mold inhibitor in fruit fly culture
>
> Hello All
>
> Has anyone ever tried co-culturing micro worms and fruit flies
> together?
> 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!
>
> Thanks
> Dave
>
> Hello Dave,
>
> I don't know about the mixed culture of microworms and fruit flies - it
> does not seem to offer any benefits & to present handling and
> competition problems.
>
> As to a mold inhibitor - "Methyl p-Hydroxybenzoate" is an excellent one
> for cultures. It is not very toxic. Carolina probably sells it (and
> maybe uses it in their fly medium).
>
> I don't remember the dosage. Try at 0.1 % and go lower, or higher,
> depending on results under YOUR conditions. The problem will be weighing
> and handling very small amounts of Methyl p-Hydroxybenzoate: for a pound
> of instant potatoes (dry), at 0.1 %, you will need only 0.45 g (that is
> 0.016 oz!) of the inhibitor. Unless you have a balance accurate in that
> range and can mix the inhibitor uniformly throughout the potatoes,
> buying the ready medium (don't they sell it in bulk?) might be the
> smarter move. Too much inhibitor will "spoil the stew"!
>
> Another thing you might try:
> Col. Jorgen Scheel (of the killie fame) used "bread rinds" for culturing
> fruit flies. Bread usually has a mold inhibitor added (check the label),
> so no problems with molding. If you have a bakery close by, "second day"
> bread usually is inexpensive.
>
> Please let me know how you fare.
>
> George Slusarczuk
> yurko at warwick_net
>
>