Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I bought a fruit fly culture kit from big apple herp supply. It comes with a culture of flies in two plastic tubes and 6 glass culture jars which they say the flies will do much better in. I mixed my 'instant fruit fly medium' with distilled water and some yeast, as instructed, and put some flies in two jars. Within 4 days all of my flies in the jars have died, but the flies in the plastic tubes from the factory are doing great. Does it have something to do with the medium? Could I have mixed it wrong?

>>I bought a fruit fly culture kit from big apple herp supply. It comes with a culture of flies in two plastic tubes and 6 glass culture jars which they say the flies will do much better in. I mixed my 'instant fruit fly medium' with distilled water and some yeast, as instructed, and put some flies in two jars. Within 4 days all of my flies in the jars have died, but the flies in the plastic tubes from the factory are doing great. Does it have something to do with the medium? Could I have mixed it wrong?

I suggest you try and get in contact with the company you bought the medium from and maybe they can help.

But for now, what type of yeast are you using (since you didn't specify). Baker's yeast or brewers yeast? Not sure it makes a difference or not, but you normally sprinkle some active baker's yeast on the surface of the medium. Although I do use brewers yeast when making my own medium (I don't buy medium, I make my own). I am guessing something is wrong with the medium if the fruit flies in the plastic containers from the supplier are doing fine. Otherwise another cause for problems is sometimes mites... Also, what type of ventilation is provided in the glass jar if any? I use coffee filters with a rubber band to keep my containers sealed, but still allows air flow.

As far as glass jars go, it can probably be reused more times than plastic jars, but they don't really affect the culture. People claim the use of excelsior (found in craft stores/section which is typically thin strings of aspen like) can improve your culture because of the additional surface area it provides. I don't know if this is true or not, but I do use it and I love how many fruit flies I have. It's not expensive and goes a long way.
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~ Juli ~
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