Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need some ideas on how you all deal with the smell of your fruit fly cultures. Where do you store them? How do you store them? Do you keep them in a box with a room air purifier in them? I need to solve this smell problem or I'll lose my dart frogs forever

Thanks

Well, what are you using for fruit fly medium? Anything homemade with potato flakes is bound to cause an awful smell. How long are you keeping the cultures around too? Mine start to smell like old fish after a few weeks when it turns blackish brown. By then, I would just discard them. I keep most of the backup cultures in the basement in indirect light. I keep two or three active cultures upstairs in my bedroom in a corner.

If it smells strongly of yeast, you may be adding too much. Also, lots of starchy foods other than potato flakes like flour (added to make the medium more solid) can cause a smell. How much ventilation are you giving the cultures? Not enough circulation is bound to cause lots of moisture buildup and rotting conditions. I learned that the hard way first starting out. Read my article about giving the flies max air circulation with the

Re: Beginner's dart frog advice by "bast"

I posted information in this topic a day ago, since he asked about any dart frogs eating more than fruit flies. I explained how easy they are to culture.

My fruit fly cultures never smell any worse than baked bread, which is a nice yeasty smell. I use a culture media that I order from Saurian, along with the deli cups and have both the melanogaster and hydei flies growing in them. The hydei take longer to mature, so can get a bit more stinky than the smaller flies over time. I keep them in a closed cupboard next to the kitchen. I usually have about 20 cultures going at any one time, because I renew them about every three days, discard the old ones. They just grow and reproduce in a dark cupboard. I remove all of the cultures daily to feed the frogs from the productive ones, then put them back. I have never noticed that they stink. They do escape and hop around the house until they die in your wine glass, or you inadvertently serve them in a salad to a guest. (Just keep a lot of coarse black pepper around to disguise them when you serve food.} I just can't understand what the big deal is about raising fruit flies. If one particular culture gets mold or gets a peculiar smell, I throw it away. It's as simple as that.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
3 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
4 D. leukomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus pending