[adam483t]

My girlfriend has been breeding her fruit flies for about a year or more now. However, a lot of them are starting to fly again (they used to be flightless), and they continue to breed, creating even more fliers.

Her one frog has been unable to eat as much because of this, and seems to be losing weight. All of the flies enjoy clinging to the top of her tank, safe from both of the frogs.

I'm going to be picking up a brand new culture today at Petco so she can start over with them. Is there a real way to prevent them from flying again? Or at least slow the process of it down? I realize it's in the genes, so is it something that everyone just has to deal with?

 

[Pumilo]

Higher temperatures can be responsible for fliers. Also, a single wild fruit fly getting into your culture can quickly take over and cause hundreds to thousands of fliers, wiping out your genetics.

 

[adam483t]

Higher temperatures can be responsible for fliers. Also, a single wild fruit fly getting into your culture can quickly take over and cause hundreds to thousands of fliers, wiping out your genetics.

So I should avoid warmer temperatures? And just try and cycle them out?

 

[guppygal]

This happens to my mels in the summertime. When it gets warm enuf, they learn to beat those wings quite well. I like feeding out Hydei because they never seem to learn to fly. If it looks like I have just a few flyers in the culture, I take it outside, take the lid off, and let 'em go. The hummers love 'em, and the remaining flies might be usable.

I don't know if this is feasible, but your gf might try chilling her flies for a few seconds before feeding them out. It tends to slow them down. Maybe this will help until she gets her new cultures going.

kristi

 

[adam483t]

This happens to my mels in the summertime. When it gets warm enuf, they learn to beat those wings quite well. I like feeding out Hydei because they never seem to learn to fly. If it looks like I have just a few flyers in the culture, I take it outside, take the lid off, and let 'em go. The hummers love 'em, and the remaining flies might be usable.

I don't know if this is feasible, but your gf might try chilling her flies for a few seconds before feeding them out. It tends to slow them down. Maybe this will help until she gets her new cultures going.

kristi

Thanks for the tips guppygal! Very helpful.

 

[hypostatic]

If you switch over to wingless fruit flies I believe that you would stop ever encountering this problem. Just one more idea.

 

[freaky_tah]

I've had a few wild ff's get into cultures in the past and it's probably best to just freeze the culture to kill everything and then toss it. I wouldn't recommend letting them go outside.

 

[Ed]

There are a number of different people with cultures not that far from where you live.. so it would be just as easy to get some new cultures. You can contact Michael Shrom and get some from him or catch up with him at the next Hamburg show (you can contact him from his user page http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/members/michael-shrom.html) or even order new cultures from the vendors.

At this point, the only fruit flies I culture are "gliders" melanogaster.

Ed

 

[Ed]

If you switch over to wingless fruit flies I believe that you would stop ever encountering this problem. Just one more idea.

Vestigial winged flies (wingless flies in the hobby) are the ones that can become flighted if you keep them warm. See (free access) http://www.cowlitzreptilerescuelab.org/resources/Fruit Fly Culturing.pdf

Ed

 

[Scott]

If you have nothing else to feed - feed them ff larvae. You can reach down in to the developing media and scoop them out and place them on a small platter.

The frog will love them.

Chilling (as mentioned earlier) ffs works also - but when they warm up - off they go.

s

 

[Pumilo]

If your flies were becoming fliers just due to the heat, I think you would have been seeing this problem a month or more ago. As it is cooling down now, I'm guessing you got a wild fly in there. You've got a few good ideas for getting by for a while, but as far as your current cultures go, they are most likely beyond saving. Start fresh with new stock.

 

[hypostatic]

Vestigial winged flies (wingless flies in the hobby) are the ones that can become flighted if you keep them warm. See (free access) http://www.cowlitzreptilerescuelab.org/resources/Fruit Fly Culturing.pdf

Ed

Oh, so the ones in the hobby aren't the "Apterous/Wingless" mutants? I've been under the impression that these were the mutants I was keeping; I haven't noticed vestigial wings, and for a whole week during the summer my a/c died on me and the temps in my house were above 81F.

Here is a picture I found for reference showing the difference between vestigial and apterous:

I'll give my flies a really good inspection tonight and maybe bring some into work tomorrow to look at them under the dissecting scope.

 

[Ed]

Oh, so the ones in the hobby aren't the "Apterous/Wingless" mutants? I've been under the impression that these were the mutants I was keeping; I haven't noticed vestigial wings, and for a whole week during the summer my a/c died on me and the temps in my house were above 81F.

Here is a picture I found for reference showing the difference between vestigial and apterous:

I'll give my flies a really good inspection tonight and maybe bring some into work tomorrow to look at them under the dissecting scope.

The apterous are available in the hobby as well. Both vestigial and apterous are called flightless in the hobby. I've seen both for sale (and both offered as wingless).... I've seen vestigial more often than apterous which is why I made the statement. I should have qualified it better.

Ed

 

[hypostatic]

Ah, ok. Well in any event, I checked my flies under the dissecting scope for confirmation, and they are indeed apterous. If anyone wants this strain I got it from the fruit fly company jars at PetCo.

 

[Pumilo]

I have worked with both the vestigial (I refer to these as flightless) and Apterous (I call them wingless). In my personal experience, the vestigial produce at least twice as many flies as the Apterous do. The vestigials have been larger than the Apteous in my cultures, too. Just a personal observation.