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Mites in my fruit fly culture

Started By Crazycow , Aug 14 2021 5:22 PM

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#1 Offline Crazycow - Posted August 14 2021 - 5:22 PM

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So I looked at my fruit fly culture after a week of being away and it was filled with mites along with hundreds of new fruit flys. Should I just throw it out or can I still use it but just freeze them first?
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#2 Offline zA-Z0-9 - Posted August 14 2021 - 5:41 PM

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i would throw it out to be safe


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#3 Offline ANTdrew - Posted August 15 2021 - 2:41 AM

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You can use them, but freeze and boil first to be safe.
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"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30:25
Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways.

#4 Offline Crazycow - Posted August 16 2021 - 10:30 PM

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You can use them, but freeze and boil first to be safe.

Can I just freeze them or do I have to also boil them?
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#5 Offline ANTdrew - Posted August 17 2021 - 2:23 AM

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Mite eggs can survive freezing.
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"The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Prov. 30:25
Keep ordinary ants in extraordinary ways.

#6 Offline Crazycow - Posted August 17 2021 - 12:27 PM

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Mite eggs can survive freezing.

Damn alright well I’ve only froze so far until the mites so I hope I didn’t just screw my colony’s
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#7 Offline ExponentMars - Posted August 17 2021 - 1:20 PM

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So I looked at my fruit fly culture after a week of being away and it was filled with mites along with hundreds of new fruit flys. Should I just throw it out or can I still use it but just freeze them first?

probably grain mites - apparently those are common in fruit fly cultures. if you feed the fruit flies to the ants, the mites won't actually do harm, but they reproduce quickly and are unsightly to look at. I would just toss them out ngl and feed the ants crickets and mealworms


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