Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What do you use to keep mold from forming in your fruit fly medium? Especially people who make their own medium.

I decided to try out distilled vinager, but that just smells nasty. So I decided to reorder Methyl Paraben (since what I have now is 5 years old) and use that again. Or is there a way to not use either and still be mold free in homemade recipes?

How do you keep the smell from the medium down in homemade recipes? Bananas have a distinct smell so I won't be using that again. I am also having difficulty getting fruit flies out because the medium got too soft and would move when the container tilted and you can't knock anything out of the excelsior. Any suggestions?

I use apple cider vinegar in my cultures. I have a jar, pre-mixed, of 2 bananas, half a can of grapejuice concentrate, some molasses, and the rest of applesauce. Whenever I make a new culture, I spoon out 3-4 tablespoons of the fruit slurry, 1 tablespoon each of water and vinegar, then approximately 3 tablespoons of potato flakes and brewers yeast (also pre-mixed @ 2/3 flakes, 1/3 yeast) Add more flakes if necessary to thicken it up, and dont be worried if its a little crumbly, the larvae will liquefy it a bit more. In fact, thats probably why your cultures got runny. IF you dont like the smell of vinegar and cant get mold inhibitor, that leaves you sol as far as mold is concerned. You need one or the other. Just keep your cultures in a large tuperware or in a cabinet or something. No healthy fruit fly culture is going to smell like a bouquet of roses.
-David Taylor

I don't use anything for mold in my cultures. The trick is to use alot of flys and make sure you use the first hatch from a culture to start a new one. I have read that the females hatch out before the males do. This creates lot of larva before mold can set in.