need help asap... dead flies

[Mentat]

Lynn already gave you good advice. Myself would let media cool down to room temp before adding the yeast (live, not brewers) grains (6-10); then the excelsior; and finally the flies.

I do a variation of Lynn's method and use an empty 32oz container to pour flies into it; ensure got like 50 for D. melanogaster or 100 for D. hydei; and then pour them from there into new culture. Label container and you are done. Good luck !

[DigitalPunk]

If your order from NeHerp hasn't shipped call them and add a culture or 2 of the Melanogaster flies to the box. Keep those to cultures separate from the others when they arrive. You can get one from them that is already producing flies and one that is freshly started. Next week you can make a new culture form the producing culture and go from there.

When the 2 new ones arrive I would check to make sure there are enough flies in the one and then throw the cultures with dead flies in them away (for fear of mites) If the ones you already setup are doing good (which the pictures you posted a couple days ago looked good) than keep them, but keep them separate from the new cultures.

You just don't want to run out of flies. That would be bad.

[awelcome]

I went ahead after not hearing from anyone last night and added a few more once it cooled some and they were fine, but of course there are still a bunch of dead ones at the bottom now. I think it was just too hot. I keep the cultures I am making on a sheet of mite paper, and the ones I bought in a box that I lined with mite paper as well (not together) and none touching. Because of space issues I do have to keep the springtail container near them also on the mite paper, but again not touching.

I definitely have seen mites on the lids of the store-bought cultures, how bad is that? Is it just a nuisance, or can it cause a problem? I am not going to be able to add flies to my current order because I just can't up the shipping to express right now (need to reign in some spending) and I don't want to take the chance on regular shipping for them in this heat. If I HAVE to buy another culture from the store I will, and running out won't be an issue since it's a quick drive to the pet store.

Next time I make a culture I will definitely let it cool down before adding the yeast and finishing them up. I guess I must have just gotten lucky the first two times that the flies didn't drop to the bottom. I do pour them into a cup first and then into either the culture, or for feeding. It's the way I have always done it.

[awelcome]

well that was weird... I fed from that new purchased culture this morning... wow those suckers scattered FAST! I am used to them pretty much staying where I put them and some scattering. These guys hit the ground running and running fast. Poor frog got her workout this morning chasing them down and managed to get most of them I think, but this could pose a problem for getting too many in the enclosure that she doesn't find eventually.... though I guess on the flipside it would give her things to hunt throughout the day instead of her eating them all so quickly. They also seem ever so slightly larger.... but I had thought I noticed the flies getting slightly smaller towards the end of the other cultures' lives.

On another note though... this culture has a sort of sour smell, that I noticed when opening it. It doesn't smell "bad" or anything, just like maybe I am getting a sense of the media in there, which I hadn't before in the others. I tried to smell the older cultures to see if the same and it's at least very similar but the others do smell more old and gross. The smell reminds me of like pickled baby corns.... do you think that smell is just because of whatever they use for media? All three cultures are from the same company, same store.

[awelcome]

just hoping someone can answer the two previous posts/questions I posted on this thread... The smell of the culture is QUITE strong (now that I am getting my sense of smell back) and I can smell it before I even open the container and it smells up the room once I do. It still doesn't smell super rancid or anything to me, unless that pickling type smell IS a sign of rancid/fungus or something in cultures. I am starting to worry about feeding them to her without hearing back from anyone, but it's the only producing culture I have at the moment. I don't know if it's a related thing, but today as she was eating she like tripped a couple times in a row, and I don't know... a paranoid part of me worried it was somehow related to the flies or something causing her to get sick.