[Guest]

Well, I have no idea when I'm actually going to be getting my first darts, but I figure in the meantime I may as well get the hang of culturing food for them. From what I've gathered, that seems to be the hardest part. I'm planning on culturing springtails, confused flour beetles, and melanogaster ffs, and I'm pretty sure I understand the basics, but I do have one question. what do I do with all the excess bugs I'm going to have? Do I kill them? Do I just let the cultures fizzle out? (I imagine that would have a smelly gross end). and if euthanizing is the way to go, what's the best way? a friend who took AP bio said she had to pour the fruit flies in alcohol. yeah, so this may be a little strange, but it's been a question that's been bothering me for a while.

oh, and how badly will these things start to smell? If I have all of them culturing in my room will it be bearable?

 

[amphibianfreak]

I'd rather have more than enough feeder insects than not enough.

 

[AJ_Cann]

It's a good question!
Most cultures tend to be more productive if harvested regularly. For springtails and melanogaster, there's no harm in just dumping them outside. For anything you want to kill before dumping, freeze it for 24 hours before putting it in the trash.

 

[Lucidblue]

I have 6 active cultures in my room on the floor. If you go close enough to them you can smell them, but anywhere else in the room and it's not a problem.

 

[joshsfrogs]

If you have fish they will eat the bugs. If you don't have fish, dump some of the bugs in a zip loc bag and give to a friend with fish. I would be weary of letting bugs go outside unless they are far from your house. Fruit flies seem to always find a way to find some fruit in my house.