[Guest]

With my latest Hydei cultures all the adults that are used to seed the culture ALL die the same night. Larval production is through the roof, the best I have ever had, but then all the adult flies die and the culture turns a dark brown and gets a foul smell... then the larve pupate and don't emerge!?!? Do the larve emit some sort of toxin? Am I producing too many larve, exceeding the carrying capacity for the culture? Am I seeding with too many adults?(I have never seen this many larvae in one culture before) Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[Randy]

What kind of filtration are you using for your cultures? It's possible that your cultures are suffocating.

 

[Guest]

I am not sure as to what you mean by filtration. I use exselsior(sp) inside the culture,and a bridal veil type mesh over the top with large holes in the lid. They are 32 o.z. plastic deli containers, and lids. Thanks for the reply!

 

[Guest]

CO2

Most likely your problem is a build up of CO2 due to the larval respiration. As carbon dioxide is heavier than air it can literally smother a culture as it fills up inside your container. An easy test to see if this is the problem is to place a couple of cultures on their side to allow the CO2 to flow out of the containers. (Of course you need to do this before the die off occurs) Keep us updated with your results.

Good Luck.
Derek

 

[Mantellaprince20]

definitely sounds like suffocation. Make sure enough air can get through the lid. I am not sure what the bridal veil mesh is, but make sure the lid is atleast 25percent open to fresh air (big hole in the middle works well). When I first started culturing I had the same problem, cuz I didn't have enough air ventilation. This is very important if you have a huge population of larvae. Anyway, good luck,

Ed

 

[Randy]

It sounds as if suffocation really is the problem. Some people swear by coffee filters, while others use the pre-punched lids sold commercially. Try one of these methods and see if your cultures give you better production. Hope this helps!

 

[Guest]

Thank you all for the suggestions, I will try to let the cultures breath a bit more. When/if I can get all these larvae to hatch out, these will be some incredible yielding cultures. Thanks again

 

[Randy]

Good luck and keep us updated!

 

[Guest]

Dang!! It happened again. I tried only coffee filters covering the culture to allow more gas exchange, but the culture still turned dark brown and smelly. The lavae seem to be reaching the pupae stage, but do not emerge. Any other guesses?? Thanks for any help.

 

[Darks!de]

How many filters did you use? What is the consistency of the media? Do you have anything for the flies to climb up on (ie excelsior)?

Luke