Lately I have noticed some white mold in a few of my fly cultures and the ones with the mold produced almost no larva at all. I have been using the same media that I have been for about a year now and this has never happened before. Does anyone know what this may come from? Thanks in advance. Anthony.
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mold on fly cultures
prettypoison
Nov 01, 2005 03:10 PM
Replies (5)
pastorjosh
Nov 02, 2005 08:22 AM
Mold can come from different sources. Have you changed anything about where you store the cultures? If your heat has just started working for the season, that could be the cause. Especially if the cultures are near a vent.
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Josh Willard
www.joshsfrogs.com
prettypoison
Nov 02, 2005 05:30 PM
Well I was keeping the cultures in the same place when they began to grow this mold. But now i have actually moved them due to mites coming back. And yes the heat has just turned on recently due to the weather so maybe that is it. Ill let you know if i figure anything out. Thanks.
spranks
Nov 08, 2005 09:02 AM
I was haggling with this all summer, and I finally got it under control.
I use Black Jungle medium that has mold inhibitors in it, so you're just supposed to add yeast and water. However, I found that I had to mix vinegar with the water.
Now I'm using (I think it was) 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water and I haven't had any mold since. I think the vinegar inhibits the fly production a little bit, but it's better than no flies.
pastorjosh
Nov 08, 2005 09:42 PM
Vinegar will hurt production. It also makes your cultures smell. Get a media with mold inhibitors in it.
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Josh Willard
www.joshsfrogs.com
frogboy3
Nov 10, 2005 08:52 AM
I had this problem for a while. What is your water source? If you are using well water, it is naturally loaded with bacteria and, yes, even mold spores. These things are usually not harmful to us because they occur in such low amounts, but it only takes one mold spore to contaminate your culture. I heat my water to a boil in a pyrex cup in the microwave. I let it cool before making the cultures, of course. This has cut my mold problem way way down. Occasionally I still get a moldy culture, but I set up two every week and can always grab a different one without mold to set up a new one. Starting a new culture from a moldy one has always meant that the new one becomes moldy as well, so try to start new cultures from clean ones whenever possible.
