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Culturing Fruit Flies

Having received a lot of e-mails and questions at shows regarding the culturing of fruit flies, we have added this link to show how our cultures have been made. Hopefully this will answer your questions and save you a few dollars.

Culturing flies is relatively easy and is a cheap alternative to purchasing pinhead crickets.

An easy recipe is as follows:

1. Blend together roughly equal parts Banana and Applesauce. When these are blended stir in oatmeal (some cheap variety; plain oatmeal flakes). Mix the oatmeal until the mixture becomes a wet dough-like consistency. (Potato flakes could also be used here)
2. At this time mix in a table spoon of baking yeast. Fish foods can also be added if you like. From here, find some old bottles, ( Snapple Juice bottles, Mason jars etc.) and put about an inch of the mix in the jar, then sprinkle on top of the mix a few grains of yeast.
3. This next step is important, allow the culture to sit out/open for about 20-24 hours. This allows the yeast to react and release carbon dioxide. Adding the flies before the CO2 has had a chance to dissipate will cause the flies to suffocate.
4. Next add the flies, about 30-40 flies is fine to start a new culture. Then place a layer of cloth with an elastic band over top of the opening, and place the culture in a warm dark place. (75-80F is fine).

In about 5 days you should begin to see many maggots crawling along the sides of the jar. In about another week from the time you have maggots you should have a fresh batch of flies hatching. When these new flies hatch it’s time to start over. (If you are culturing hydei, the whole process takes longer, about one month from the time you start a culture until the time you have flies) It’s best to start new cultures with the freshest flies as they will be most productive. You will need to start about 1 culture for every three frogs you have, every week. This will probably be more than enough but it is better to have too much than too little, these little frogs can eat a lot. If you experience problem with mold, you might consider adding a few drops of diluted methylene blue solution to the mix.

The downside to this recipe is that some say it smells like urine, I prefer to think it smells like a wonderful batch of beer.

This is a recipe I have used for over six or seven years and have never had any problems with it, or major crashes. I find it produces much better for me than the pre-made mixes that I have tried (I certainly have not tried them all though) and its cheap to make. I got this recipe off of the Frognet mailing list several years ago, it was not a clever idea on my part.