Mould

C

chris

Guest
I recently bought a culture of fruitflies from a petshop. The original culture is fine, but the one I decanted some flies into has just got covered in mould. I put a layer of mashed banana at the bottom, a piece of cotton wool for pupating on and covered the container with fine gauzy material.
Many of the flies seem to have died, and there are no eggs/maggots as far as I can see. What went wrong? Despite being next to the failure, the original culture is still healthy with lots of adult flies...
Chris
 
Yes, sprinkle some yeast on top of the banana this is what the larvae will feed on, the yeast will also ferment the banana stopping it from going mouldy. You can buy the yeast in sachet's at your local supermarket.
 
Or you can use a commercial ff media, and add yeast to that.

Ed
 
Thanks. I'll try another bnannana one with yeast, and then start one of the orange-juice mixture ones if the first one fails or does very well.
Thanks
Chris
 
Is the point of adding yeast(besides being the food source) also to outcompete mold etc?

I've never had a mold problem in my cultures and that is strange since there is so much nutrition in the mix.
 
Here's a good recipe
8 cups potato flakes
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup brewers yeast

Sprinkle a few grains of active yeast on top of each culture
To 1/3 to 1/2 cup of this mixture add 1/2 cup of a 1 to 1 mix of white vinegar and water
add adult flies

The vinegar keeps down mold and fungus
You will have high and consistent yields

Lately I have been using this recipe and mixing it about 40/60 with carolina formula 424. When mixing with the commercial media I don't use vinegar. The brewers yeast seems to increase yield and smell.
 
Oatmeal 500 grams,
Yeast 50 grams,
a pot of applesauce,
and some warm water.

Leave it rising for one day, and you have a perfect fruitfly mixture!
 
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