18 replies to this topic

[Gregory2455]

Ok, so I was going to sit down and feed my colonies today, but then I looked at my fruit fly container, and i did not see flies running around on the top. I was curious, so I shook it. Nothing. I opened it, and I could see every single fruit fly was laying on the bottom dead. What could have caused this and would it be dangerous to my ants? I just fed them with the same fruit flies yesterday. It looks like there is fog on the bottom sides of the container, which may not be fog at all, but possibly fungus. Also, I have seen various species of mites in the container, but they were there since I bought them, and do not appear to be parasitic.

[Mads]

Are there maggots moving around? The flies don't live long, so they could possibly just have died of old age. It sounds like they may possibly have been "cooked", since you say there was a fog at the bottom of the container. Were they exposed to direct sunlight? As far as the mites, they do sometimes get infected. The only way to get rid of them is to "out cycle" the mites. You keep moving the flies to new containers and hopefully skip the mites egg laying cycle. The other way is to get a new clean culture and start new ones. Always have a few going at the same time, that way if one gets infested with mites, you simply chuck it, and only start new cultures from clean ones.

 

Mads

[Gregory2455]

No everything is dead. The mites are walking around, but once again, they do not look parasitic. The mist looks to be forming around particles, and now started to look like fungus. Is this going to be dangerous to my ants? I fed them with these flies like two days ago.

[Mads]

No, I don't think it will harm your ants. If it was harmful, your flies would have died quite early after being introduced to their substrate. Is there any ventilation in the container? I always use lids with a fabric on it. Air flow is vital for a good culture.

Mads

[Gregory2455]

I am not sure, hat may have been the problem.

[Gregory2455]

Is there anything else I can feed them until the store restocks? Funny how i don't really know this, but how often do you NEED to feed a colony?

[Alza]

depends on the size, for me i have 7 workers, so 3 fruit flies every two days 

[Gregory2455]

That's not what I meant Alza. Since when did you know? 

Edited by Gregory2455, September 13 2014 - 2:52 PM.

[Alza]

since yesterday, mate 

[Gregory2455]

Sure.

[Alza]

yep

[Mads]

Any kind of feeder worm will work, or crickets of course.

Mads

[Gregory2455]

Well it happened again.   

I bought another brand new culture two days ago.

For absolutely no reason they died out. They stayed in the correct temperature, and just about any other factor.

Why would a two day old culture just die like this? All my cultures die like this, but it is new for them to die so early. It seems to be just this species, Drosophila hydei. I have had no issue with Drosophila melanogaster. Also, looking into it, i see the remains of about 20 of the original ~150 fruit flies that came with it. They had NO chance of escape whatsoever. The pupae also look dead, and there are no maggots present.

[AntsAreUs]

How fast do they reproduce? I have not bought any yet. Also there maybe microscopic mites that could possibly be killing and reproducing around your breeding area.

[Crystals]

I have also found Drosophila hydei to be a bit tempermental.  Adults never lived long and the eggs took forever to hatch and the larvae took a long time to grow.  More than 2/3 of the time it was just eggs and/or larvae with no adults.

I finally let them die out and just kept the Drosophila melanogaster which I have had no issues with.

[Gregory2455]

I hear they sometimes have no adults, and in a week will have more. I am keeping both cultures (one died out ~5 days ago, and the other yesterday) and see what may happen.

[Myrmicinae]

Drosophila hydei are a bit difficult to culture, due to some quirks of their life cycle. Adult females and males emerge from pupae at different times, a strategy that helps them avoid inbreeding in nature. In captivity, it is usually necessary to mix cultures of different ages to ensure that you have members of both sexes.

Edited by Myrmicinae, October 23 2014 - 9:51 AM.

[Gregory2455]

That is pretty interesting to know. I give up on Drosophila hydei.

[Mads]

Yes, as stated, male D. hydei emerge a few days before the females. If you start a new culture from a culture that has just started producing flied, you will most likely only have males in there. I let the culture have flies for at least a week before taking flies out for a new culture. This ensures that both sexes are present.

Hydei also seem to require a little more protein and heat than melanogaster.

Mads