5 replies to this topic

[Nathant2131]

I have recently bought a flightless fruit fly culture (species Drosophila hydei) from my local Petsmart on 6/22. The majority of them were larvae, but there were also a few flies and pupae. These are meant as food for my ant colonies.

 

The enclosure consists of a large plastic vial (~4 inches tall, ~1/4 inches diameter) with a blue-colored medium at the bottom. There is a red-colored netting in the middle, and the top is plugged off with foam. 

 

The flies hang out on the upper part of the netting and upside down on the cotton. The pupae like staying in the netting and on the upper part of the wall. The larvae hang out on the lower part of the wall, in the blue medium, and in between/beside the area in which the netting meets the wall.

 

 

6/24/17

 

As of 6/24: There are 2 flies, around 25-35 pupae (not including the ones in the medium), and many, many larvae (hundreds).

 

Larvae:

 

 

Pupae:

 

 

Flies:

 

Edited by Nathant2131, July 2 2017 - 4:12 PM.

[Gabraime]

That is awesome, they are a really good source of protein to ants. So how many flies are going to born in that tube?

[Nathant2131]

That is awesome, they are a really good source of protein to ants. So how many flies are going to born in that tube?

Probably a lot seeing how many larvae there are. The medium in these cultures lasts only about 5 weeks, but this species completes their life cycle in around 21 days. I'm guessing all the larvae will have their chance at being a fly.

 

It'll be tough getting only a couple flies out of a fly-infested tube, so I'll have to fridge them or something to calm them down.

 

And I forgot to add-they are flightless.

Edited by Nathant2131, June 25 2017 - 7:35 AM.

[ultraex2]

Cool!  I buy these too.  After the 5ish week mark the blue food just turns black and then everything dies.

 

Just a tip that I use, if you knock it the floor a few times the flies on the top will fall off and then you can open and let a few crawl back up and quickly dump them out before the rest climb back up to the top.

 

The ants will also eat the maggots, so if a few get thrown in there don't worry too much about it.

[CNewton]

During my aquarist years, I distinctly remember having a culture of these for top-feeding fish. It is also possible to keep that culture going indefinitely. You'd have to do a google search, but I know you can make food medium from powdered or flaked baby food. Dump a few of the adults into the new medium and they will begin laying more eggs and you'll have an endless supply of flys. I only stopped keeping these because I dumped my container and they infested my other cultures of microworms and vinegar eels.

[Nathant2131]

Thanks everyone for the input.

 

7/2/17

 

The culture is at roughly 50 pupae, aroundt 6-7 flies, and still many larvae. A lot of the pupae are darkening and you can see the flies inside of them, so a population boom is expected soon!

 

I've had my first two feedings with this culture over the past few days. very simple to get only 1 or two out at a time without them escaping.

 

First, I put the culture in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes to immobilize the flies. When I take them out, I knock the culture down to the counter so all the immobilized flies get sent to the bottom of the culture. Then I dump a couple flies out into a paper plate. They are so out of it, only their limbs are moving slightly. I then quickly put the cotton back on top of the culture. i squish the flies a bit with a skewer to kill them, and it's feeding time! So far I have fed 3 flies to my small Prenolepis imparis colonies. They have proved to be a very good insect source for my small colonies so far.