28 replies to this topic

[Flu1d]

I've also looked into mason jars. How does the cleaning compare to freezing the dead culture in a 32 oz deli cup?

Super easy to clean. I pull out the excelsior and throw it away, then put hot water in the jar and slosh it around with the lid on and then rinse it into the sink. Then wash the jar and lid and start a new culture. I have 4 jars so I can have multiples up so my ants never have to go without.

I like that method you use with the metal bowl. I have a glass vial that fit on the feeding lid and I let a few crawl in, freeze the vial for some minutes and dump them into my colonies. Both ways would work fantastic!

[Mushu]

 

I've also looked into mason jars. How does the cleaning compare to freezing the dead culture in a 32 oz deli cup?

Super easy to clean. I pull out the excelsior and throw it away, then put hot water in the jar and slosh it around with the lid on and then rinse it into the sink. Then wash the jar and lid and start a new culture. I have 4 jars so I can have multiples up so my ants never have to go without.

I like that method you use with the metal bowl. I have a glass vial that fit on the feeding lid and I let a few crawl in, freeze the vial for some minutes and dump them into my colonies. Both ways would work fantastic!

 

Nice. Yeah I also put flies in a plastic sauce container and flash freeze them for about 30 minutes before feeding. I used an aspirator container and being thicker it took much longer to freeze them and they woke up mid way and freaked out a young colony. While I like seeing the ants hunt live wingless flies, they leave poop all over the outworld walls for the ones not caught. 

[Flu1d]

I've also looked into mason jars. How does the cleaning compare to freezing the dead culture in a 32 oz deli cup?

Super easy to clean. I pull out the excelsior and throw it away, then put hot water in the jar and slosh it around with the lid on and then rinse it into the sink. Then wash the jar and lid and start a new culture. I have 4 jars so I can have multiples up so my ants never have to go without.

I like that method you use with the metal bowl. I have a glass vial that fit on the feeding lid and I let a few crawl in, freeze the vial for some minutes and dump them into my colonies. Both ways would work fantastic!

Nice. Yeah I also put flies in a plastic sauce container and flash freeze them for about 30 minutes before feeding. I used an aspirator container and being thicker it took much longer to freeze them and they woke up mid way and freaked out a young colony. While I like seeing the ants hunt live wingless flies, they leave poop all over the outworld walls for the ones not caught.

It's actually crazy how much doodoo fruit flies leave behind.

I typically let my ants hunt the FF's, but I do the freeze thing as well. It prevents dookie stains all along the outworld.. but I do feel like they enjoy taking them down, as well.

[PurdueEntomology]

I fill a spent jar with boiling water, let it sit for an hour then decant.  All the waste flows out in sink where I catch it with a sieve and then discard.  I then half fill with hot water and place a piece of steel wool ( used for pots and pans) and swish it around till all remaining gunk comes off, decant.  Second wash with drop of dish washing liquid and hot water, swish and decant.  Then rinse and let dry. I use reusable screen which easily washes under a flow of tap water.  Upshot, all very easy and constantly reusable .  I have had no contamination with this method, but since the food base is highly acidic that extreme low pH assists in bacteria and fungi control. 

Edited by PurdueEntomology, April 3 2024 - 10:20 PM.

[PurdueEntomology]

 

 

 

I've also looked into mason jars. How does the cleaning compare to freezing the dead culture in a 32 oz deli cup?

Super easy to clean. I pull out the excelsior and throw it away, then put hot water in the jar and slosh it around with the lid on and then rinse it into the sink. Then wash the jar and lid and start a new culture. I have 4 jars so I can have multiples up so my ants never have to go without.

I like that method you use with the metal bowl. I have a glass vial that fit on the feeding lid and I let a few crawl in, freeze the vial for some minutes and dump them into my colonies. Both ways would work fantastic!

Nice. Yeah I also put flies in a plastic sauce container and flash freeze them for about 30 minutes before feeding. I used an aspirator container and being thicker it took much longer to freeze them and they woke up mid way and freaked out a young colony. While I like seeing the ants hunt live wingless flies, they leave poop all over the outworld walls for the ones not caught.

It's actually crazy how much doodoo fruit flies leave behind.

I typically let my ants hunt the FF's, but I do the freeze thing as well. It prevents dookie stains all along the outworld.. but I do feel like they enjoy taking them down, as well.

 

We like to anthropomorphize.

[futurebird]

I'm going to try this test tube method. I've used larger jars, but it's just too many flies. I can buy some fruit flies and isolate them them hopefully crack them open as needed. 

 

Putting them in the wine fridge is a good way to keep them longer... but the regular fridge is too cold and will kill them. 

[Flu1d]

I've also looked into mason jars. How does the cleaning compare to freezing the dead culture in a 32 oz deli cup?

Super easy to clean. I pull out the excelsior and throw it away, then put hot water in the jar and slosh it around with the lid on and then rinse it into the sink. Then wash the jar and lid and start a new culture. I have 4 jars so I can have multiples up so my ants never have to go without.

I like that method you use with the metal bowl. I have a glass vial that fit on the feeding lid and I let a few crawl in, freeze the vial for some minutes and dump them into my colonies. Both ways would work fantastic!

Nice. Yeah I also put flies in a plastic sauce container and flash freeze them for about 30 minutes before feeding. I used an aspirator container and being thicker it took much longer to freeze them and they woke up mid way and freaked out a young colony. While I like seeing the ants hunt live wingless flies, they leave poop all over the outworld walls for the ones not caught.

It's actually crazy how much doodoo fruit flies leave behind.

I typically let my ants hunt the FF's, but I do the freeze thing as well. It prevents dookie stains all along the outworld.. but I do feel like they enjoy taking them down, as well.

We like to anthropomorphize.

How so?

[Locness]

Great idea with mason jars. Plastic containers are flimsy and not reusable. I usually just freeze my fruit flies to control their population.

[Mushu]

Great idea with mason jars. Plastic containers are flimsy and not reusable. I usually just freeze my fruit flies to control their population.

Plastic Deli Cups are actually re-useable with the freezing method but is a bit flimsy(at least the current stock at Josh's frog) and if not careful you may end up bending and breaking some. It's really easy to clean, just use a plastic spoon to scrape off the old pupae on the walls, then rinse. 

 

I'm thinking if using the wide mouth mason jars,  you can use the same freeze method and just pull out the frozen old media/culture with a bit of nudging.

 

Josh's frog updated instructions is to just pour boiling water and not mix the media. I've found it works better when doing that keep the media from getting as wet. I've found using the fully plastic and not cloth vented lids, where I live, the media gets too wet towards the second/third hatch of the culture and the adult flies drown in the wet top part of the media. As mentioned before the plastic vented lids keeps the culture more humid.  It's better if I don't mix the media and this method also worked great with my home made media(it's still producing great at 6 weeks), although you should probably be throwing it out by this time to prevent mites/mold that may take hold easier on the end of the culture. Josh's frog has powdered honey in their mix, so it's more wet compared to my home made media with out as honey is a natural humectant, all things being equal.

 

Now I'm adding coffee filter stuffed with some excelsior and hopefully it can control the humidty for Josh's frog media, as someone tried the coffee filter + excelsior and they've had great results with it. Although my home made media is working great, I probably don't need to worry about media being too wet, the coffee filter is extra surface area and allows me to put less excelsior. I find if you can keep the top part of the culture from getting too wet or dry it produces longer. 

 

Now you don't need to min/max your production with these little tweaks as culturing is really easy and is forgiving but I'm a bit weird like that and thought I would share.