Flightless Fruit Fly Culture Kit Instructions

MATERIALS INCLUDED / REQUIRED

32 oz deli cup with poly-lined vented lid (Insect Lid)
Excelsior (Wood Wool / Aspen Wool)
Pre-measured amount of Repashy Superfly FF Media
Clean, warm coffee mug
A large fork and tablespoon
2/3 cup boiling water

PREPARING / MIXING THE FF MEDIA

Official Repashy Mixing Instructions.

https://www.repashyfoods.ca/repashy-superfly

SOME TIPS BASED ON EXPERIENCE

I recommend mixing the media in a pre-warmed coffee mug , mixing with a fork until prepared.
Work your way up to the 2/3 cups of boiling water. It's easy to use too much.
Once mixed, pour/spoon it into the deli cup. I never mix directly in the deli cup.
Once poured, cap the culture right away, and allow it to cool to room temperature. Capping is important in case you have some wild fruit flies buzzing around your kitchen. You don't want those introduced into your culture.
Once cooled, fluff up the portion of excelsior and 'twist' it gently into the media. Sometimes, I use a chopstick to push some excelsior down into the media to better anchor it. I don't recommend adding excelsior while the media is hot as the moisture is very high at that point.
It's best to keep space between lid and excelsior as you may end up with many larvae (and later eggs) right on the lid, or in the seams between cup and lid.
Drop in 40 to 60 flightless fruit flies of only one species. Don't allow any wild fruit flies to contaminate your cultures.

CULTURE SERVICE LIFE - DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER (SMALLER, BROWN)

Drosophila melanogaster cultures take 12-15 days for new flies to hatch (for culture to 'bloom'). Of course, not all eggs were produced at the same time, so expect a distribution of hatches. Depending on level of care and management, a culture can last anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks.

CULTURE SERVICE LIFE - DROSOPHILA HYDEI (LARGER, BLACK OR GOLDEN)

Drosophila hydei cultures take 21-25 days for new flies to hatch (for culture to 'bloom'). Of course, not all eggs were produced at the same time, so expect a distribution of hatches. Depending on level of care and management, a culture can last anywhere from 5 weeks to 2 months.

This is an excellent site describing ff care and life cycle in detail. If you're states-side, grab cultures and/or media kits from them. ;)

https://www.neherpetoculture.com/flycaresheet

CULTURE MANAGEMENT

Always plan on using no more than half the population (of a fresh culture) in the first 4 days. This ensures enough reproduction to sustain the culture.
Do not let cultures dry out. Shipped cultures are often mixed a little dryer so they stay in one piece during shipping. Swirl in a teaspoon of water at a time as required. I don't recommend spraying cultures, as the water doesn't usually make it down into the media. Tip: better dryer than wetter, so proceed with care.
Once a culture blooms, consider what your needs really are. A full producing or 'popping' culture consumes remaining media very quickly, leading to its collapse. If you're feeding just a few young nymphs or spiderlings, you're better off purging off excess flies, leaving only what you really need.
Purging just means getting them out of your culture. This is when you seed new cultures, or use purged flies to surface feed small fish in aquariums, etc.
I can often extend the life of a culture by adding a little media. I simply move excelsior to one side, and drop a dollop of prepared media.
Always be aware of the possibility of mites. Maintain a strong breeding number so you have lots of larvae to consume mite eggs and any mould that builds up.
I keep several cultures in plastic tray. I in turn set each tray inside a larger tray (cat litter tray) dusted with diatomaceous earth. This prevents any grain mites in the house (and every house has them, sorry to say LOL) to migrate to the cultures in search of food and moisture. I don't set the cultures into the diatomaceous earth because that gets messy, and you don't want that stuff everywhere (it will kill your mantis nymphs and spiderlings).

CARESHEETS

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