Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Was wondering if anyone could help?
One out of every 5 or 6 of my cultures(forum reciepe) comes down with either a blue or black mold that really reduces the cultures production. This usually happens a week or so after it is started and I'm wondering if it's from the Excelsior I'm using. Should I heat this in the oven to kill off mold spores?
Thanks for the help.
Tim

I am not sure what Excelsior is? But if you only have it in just a few, I would get rid of all the cultures that have black mold. Start new cultures with fresh cultures that are only just starting to produce and no black mold is present(somewhere around 10-15days, depending on your species and temp.). Black mold, if you don't control it, will take over all the cultures and eventually all cultures will crash. Remember not to start cultures with old one since the mold will be transfered quite easily. Also, keep new cultures away from older ones; this could help and slow down any spreading of the spores. If you keep making fresh cultures every 5-7 days and kill cultures that are 4-6 weeks old, this will keep mold down. Remember, cultures with black mold, get rid of it and don't use. Hope this helps.

WM

Hi WM,
Thanks for the help. Excelsior is the shredded wood that you get in FF cultures. Some people use plastic mesh or cardboard like the excelsior to give the flies and larvae places to climb.
I got rid of the contaminated cultures right away although it was hard since I had just recieved it a week earlier. It hadn't even started to produce yet.
Thanks
Tim

In my experience I have found that vinegar will decrease the mold production. But, at the same time, vinegar, especially in the winter months, will make your medium dry out much quicker. You just have to try and find a common ground where you have enough vinegar to halt the growth, but not dry up.

Also, try not using nothing for surface area. The flies should be fine just crawling and pupating on the sides.

Another thing that *may* help you is switching to mason jars with a screened lid.

Good luck

Joe

Any nonsterile material used in the fly cultures, including the flies themselves, can carry mold into fresh cultures. The usual remedy is to use tegosept (methyl paraben) which you can buy over the web. Flies raised on tegosept treated food should be safe to feed to amphibians. The approximate amount is 1 to 1.5 grams per liter (or 4-5 grams per gallon) of hot water. If you use cooked food, you can add it directly the mix before adding water.

A simple and cheap medium for raising fruit flies is potato flakes and brewer's yeast in a 10:1 ratio by weight. You can buy the flakes from any grocery store and the yeast from some pharmacies or any "health food" store. To use, mix the flakes and yeast together, put an appropriate amount in a container and add an approximately equal volume of tegosepted water. Add flies and plug the container. The medium tends to get soupy in successful cultures and you will need to add some solidifying material. I'm not familiar with excelsior but I should think shredded paper towels would work as well or better. I use sterile cotton soaked in tegosepted water and dried, but that's rather expensive and probably not necessary where multiple females are used to start the culture.

Some of the orchard fungicides would likely work just as well as tegosept but you would have to be careful to make sure flies raised on fungicide treated medium are not toxic to your frogs.

Bigfoot