First fruit fly cultures

[guppygal]

If there isn't any mold inhibitor like vinegar in the liquid, you will get mold. To be on the safe side, prep a few more cultures and make sure you add 1:1 vinegar to water to the dry ingredients.

As Mike mentioned, all fruitfly cultures eventually end up with mites. The older the culture, the more likely it is to get mites. There's mite paper that you can set your cultures on that should help.

I make my cultures a little differently than most folks. I use empty plastic water bottles rather than the culture cups. I cover the bottle opening with black pantyhose so that I can see if I have a mite problem. I use the basic potato flake/brewer's yeast/powdered sugar dry ingredients mixed with an equal amount of liquid. I also use the broad excelsior which gives the flies more space to sit and the larvae to pupate. I drink a lot of water, so the containers are never in short supply.

On a side note, the plastic water bottles are useful for others stuff: cut the top half off an use it as a funnel; use the bottom half as a catch cup for your frogs; invert the the top half and tape it to the bottom half that has a piece of banana in it for a fruitfly trap.

So, there ya go ~