Repashy superfly

Are you rearing hydei or melanogaster?

Often if there is a bad odor coming from the cultures, it is because of some other microbes getting established inside the cultures. Are you adding live yeast to them before you add the flies?

Ed

I use excelsior and do not have issues with bad smells with either of the medias I've used (including the Repashy). The excelsior holds up well through the life of the culture and I acutally use it as part of the method to clean the cultures out to clean the cups.

When do you start to smell the media? What does it smell like to you when you mix it with the hot water?

Ed

bsr8129 said:

the media will start to smell at about the 2 week mark, When mixed with hot water it doesnt smell bad, it almost has no smell.

Click to expand...

Okay, how much dry media are you putting into the cultures?

Foul odors in media are typically the result of decompositon of protiens or growth under anaerobic conditions. I suspect that you have a contaminent that is being carried from one culture to the next and the two week time line is the incubation time.

You can try adding more active yeast to the media before the flies are added to try and increase the competition and try to screen out the microbe or you can do as noted above, and try flies from a new source.

Ed

Reef_Haven said:

How many flies do you add for a culture?
Might help to increase the amount of media or reduce the number of flies you start the culture with. Too many mags can produce high levels of ammonia and drive the mags out of the media before they are ready to pupate.

Click to expand...

This is true if you are selecting your flies to be intolerant in crowded conditions in the cultures..

Ed