Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,
I need help with making a good homemade fruit fly media. Can anyone give me a useful recipe to make some? Thanks a lot. Merry Xmas
Ryan

Ryan,

I've been experimenting with different home made mediums recently. Two have really produced great yields and one in particular is amazing. The amount of fruit flies that is produced is probably 5 times what I've been getting from the Carolina Biological Supply mix. I got this mixture from David Taylor who got it from Chris Miller I think, heres how I do it:

Boil in a large pot:
1 Bannana
1/2 Can of grape juice concentrate
1/2 Jar of applesauce
1/8 Cup of molasis

Mix in a bowl:
2 Parts instant mashed potato flakes
1 Part brewers yeast

Combine in a seperate container equal parts white vinigar and water.

Add 2 parts of the boiled mix, 2 parts of the dry mix and 1 part of the liquid into fruit fly cultures until you have an inch or two of medium on the bottom. Let it sit for a few minutes to cool off and you're done. It is a lot of work to make and very messy but the amount of flies that are produced makes it worth while. The amount above is enough to make 5 32 oz. cultures. Cultures that I started on Monday literally look white with little maggots and I'm sure in a week they will be almost solid black and full of flies.

This next mixture was shown to me by a friend. Its very easy and I get close to the same amount of flies from this as I do from commercial media. These measurements are for filling small 12 oz. cups half way full of medium.

1/2 Cup of water
1/2 Tablespoon of white sugar
1 Tablespoon of powdered milk
4 Tablespoons of instant mashed potato flakes
5-15 granules of bakers yeast

Takes less time to make than the first one but doesn't produce as high of a yield. Good luck,
-----
Devin
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com
3.2 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Dwarf French Guiana'
1.1 Dendrobates tinctorius 'Powder Blue'
5.1 Mantella aurantiaca
2.1 Mantella crocea
1.0 Ceratophrys cranwelli
1.0 Bufo americanus
0.0.1 Salamandra salamandra
1.0 Ambystoma tigrinum
0.1 Chamaeleo calyptratus
0.1 Phelsuma dubia
1.1 Uroplatus ebenaui
0.0.1 Chrysemys scripta
0.0.1 Chrysemys picta belli
1.0 Terrapene carolina triunguis

This is the media I have been using with great success for both melanogaster and hydei:

8 cups potato flakes
1 cup brewer's yeast
1 cup sugar (powdered sugar preferable)

Place dry contents in gallon ziploc bag and mix well.

When I want to set up a culture (I use 32 oz. containers), I use 1/3 cup dry media to 3/4 cup of water/distilled white vinegar (50/50 mix). Then sprinkle a few grains of baker's yeast on top.

I've started using a little more media per culture recently because the larvae literally consume all of the media before the cultures stop producing. Oh, I also add paprika to each culture for carotenes. This is a cheap, easy media that is very effective.
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

n/p

I am cautious about adding too many simple sugars to the media...bacteria love them- so no fresh fruit or molasses in my mix. Here is my recipe:

6 cups potato flakes
2 cups baby cereal (of any kind - it looks like a silky couscous)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup Brewers yeast

Add 50/50 vinegar/water mix until it is slightly soupy, wait ten minutes for water to absorb, then add a pinch of active yeast to the top (Baker's yeast)

I truly believe the fortified baby cereal adds important minerals that cause the cultures to go crazy with larvae.

I feed from one culture continuously for 5 medium size frogs for 2-3 weeks. I start a new culture only every week and a half or so. The production is really quite amazing, sometimes I still have to empty adults into a storage container to keep overpopulation death from ruining the culture.

I am considering dropping the sugar from the recipe above. You see, FF larvae only feed on the waste and byproducts of the yeast, not on the medium itself. The dead Brewer's yeast allows the initial larvae to grow well (until the media is churned enough to get the active yeast mixed in well). Then, the active yeast waste allows good larval growth.

I'm thinking that the powdered sugar actually only causes bacterial growth more than any yeast growth. I have yet to test it out though, as I usually don't have too much of a problem with bacterial growth (nasty smell), although occasionally one will go bad towards the end of its life. Also, I have never had a problem with mold growth.

Kevin H.