Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, I just wanted to give credit where credit is due, but I lost the person's nick/email.

Few weeks ago someone posted a medium recipe in reply to my post.

I tried it and it works better then everything I've tried in the past. I've tried the molasses/fruit/bananas/apple sauce combos etc... I never tried just the simple brewer's yeast recipe until now. It's producing thousands and thousands of flies!!! Like nothing ever before !!!

for the good of all, here is the recipe:

3 cups potatoe flakes
1 cup brewer's yeast ( I thought it was excessive, but it isn't)
1 cup sugar
50/50 water vinager mix

a little fleishman's quick rising yeast to sprinkle on top of each culture

I made it very moist and stuffed a bunch of exelsior wood shavings. These absorb some of the moisture. Plus I found that dry mediums don't produce as much.

I've tried Ed's Fly Meat mediums before and I honestly think that this is much better as far as fly production goes!!!

This in fact is unbeatable !!!!!!!!

Try it and You'll agree.

To make it more moist did you use the usual 50/50 mix or more? I just ran out of my usual FF mix, so I will test this out. Thanks for posting it!

Cliff

>>Hey, I just wanted to give credit where credit is due, but I lost the person's nick/email.
>>
>>Few weeks ago someone posted a medium recipe in reply to my post.
>>
>>I tried it and it works better then everything I've tried in the past. I've tried the molasses/fruit/bananas/apple sauce combos etc... I never tried just the simple brewer's yeast recipe until now. It's producing thousands and thousands of flies!!! Like nothing ever before !!!
>>
>>for the good of all, here is the recipe:
>>
>>3 cups potatoe flakes
>>1 cup brewer's yeast ( I thought it was excessive, but it isn't)
>>1 cup sugar
>>50/50 water vinager mix
>>
>>a little fleishman's quick rising yeast to sprinkle on top of each culture
>>
>>I made it very moist and stuffed a bunch of exelsior wood shavings. These absorb some of the moisture. Plus I found that dry mediums don't produce as much.
>>
>>I've tried Ed's Fly Meat mediums before and I honestly think that this is much better as far as fly production goes!!!
>>
>>This in fact is unbeatable !!!!!!!!
>>
>>Try it and You'll agree.

I just used the regular 50/50 to make it more moist. Add some, then the flakes will absorb it, then after about 10 min I added some more so finally the consistancy should be somewhere b/w guacamole and apple sauce...If you add the wood shavings that will keep it from dislodging.

So where can you get brewer's yeast? At your local supermarket? Thanks.

GNC has it for sure, but you will get a better deal if you buy it online somewhere. I just bought some from bulkfoods.com. I did a lot of price shopping and that one was by far the cheapest.

As for grocery stores, I looked all around and couldn't find it at any of the ones by me. You may want to call the places before driving to them. I am pretty sure it will save you a lot of time.
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Thanks and Gig Em,
Cliff
0.3 Sipiwlini Tinc's

I do notice a boom in production when using brewer's yeast in the medium. I made an almost duplicate batch of fruit medium and the ones I used brewer's yeast in can't last 3 weeks because all the larvas ate all the medium. I find my cultures run out of food before they go bad when brewer's yeast was used. I don't recall how much I used though since I just sprinkle and mix with medium when I make new cultures. I make large batches of medium and freeze what I don't use right away. Brewer's yeast definately makes a difference.
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~ Juli ~
www.Polliwog-Design.com

That sounds like what I use, but thats not enough potato flakes:

Here is what I use from doylesdartden:
8 cups potato flakes
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2-1 cup brewers yeast

1:1 water:vineger

You will spend a ton more not using more potato flakes. I will agree though I have been using this for some time and it has been great.
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
0.0.2 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators

I'll try more potatoe flakes with next batches. I was just shocked to see how many larvae I have in my 32oz containers.

You're right, brewer's yeast is the absolute key! I've tried other yeasts and they don't even come close to this one.

You still have to use a little active yeast on top. Just a small pinch.
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
0.0.2 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators

This is the one that I use as well (the 8 cups potato flakes to 1 cup brewer's yeast with some powdered sugar). I also mix in paprika for beta carotene and medium color. You really can't beat this mix for production, cost, and ease of use.
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

I've been using the same recipe (with more potatoe) for a few years now and have always sworn by it .... but .... believe it or not it can be improved. I recently started using flaked baby food as an additional indgredient.

6 cups potatoe flake
2 cups baby food flake
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup brewers yeast

50/50 water/vinegar

This recipe has had the greatest effect on my hydei cultures, which are OVER producing now. The larva production is so huge that I've had to decrease the number of adult flies when I set up a culture.

I have thought of using that, what kind do you use? Just baby cereal? They make bananna flavored...
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
0.0.2 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators

marcin is this the e-mail you are talking about?

"From: "Marty Krol" | This is spam | Add to Address Book
To: "AJ Comer"
Subject: Re: Message from Marcin about !

1 cup of brewer's yeast ??? WHOA ! A whole lot of yeast.
thanks, I"ll try it out.
Marty

> its not really a secret. its the same as kyle's recipe
> except i added a cup of paperika to it. I dought that
> made a big differance. I notice the eds media seems to
> show signs of maggots first, but it seems a day or so
> afterwards mine explodes with larva. but this is my
> experiance.
>
> i have to give credit to kyle for this one, he gives
> credit to doyle's dart den.
>
> 8 cups potatoe flakes
> 1 cup powder sugar
> 1 cup brewers yeast
> *optional* 1 cup paperika
>
> aj"

?

aj
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Click Here to see my vivarium and steps on how to make a basic vivarium UPDATED 9.10.03 Now complete! Blue Sipaliwini Darts need to get old enough to go the big tank now!

kungfu28181: My god. You are insane. -Mon Jun 30 21:41:05

.

paperika helps bring out the blue and yellows in the darts.
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Click Here to see my vivarium and steps on how to make a basic vivarium UPDATED 9.10.03 Now complete! Blue Sipaliwini Darts need to get old enough to go the big tank now!

kungfu28181: My god. You are insane. -Mon Jun 30 21:41:05

paprika/beta- carotene ... reds, yellows and orange
spirulina/chlorella ... blues and greens

How much Spirulina/Chlorella should I use? I am using the same formula as the main post (4 cups potato flakes though). Also, where can I find this other than in fish food (higher quantities)? Thanks,
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Thanks and Gig Em,
Cliff
0.3 Sipiwlini Tinc's

Yeah, but I think I only used 4 cups of flakes to 1 cup of yeast.... I deleted your message so I'm not sure now !

anyways, thanks for passing on this formula... It's working great even if I didn't follow your proportions. In one jar I must have (without exaggerating) about 6000-8000 larvae....It's insane!!!

Give specifics on the baby food please. Is it the banana flavoured Milupa ? I'd like to try in my next batch.

n/p