# New little black flying insects in my cultures



## *GREASER* (Apr 11, 2004)

There are these little black winged insects showing up in my cultures now. they are about the size of melanogaster but longer in body shape and it appears they attach to one another abdomen to abdomen to mate? I guess I can still feed these to my frogs. Im just wondering what they are?


----------



## Guest (Jul 29, 2005)

I don't know their names, but I always thought they were mosquitos. They probably aren't though. They used to infest my vivs a while back. And once we bought a guzmania bromeliad, and they took it as their new home. They also hang out on my window screens (i live on the 9th floor of an apartment building). I used to feed them to my newly morphed spring peepers (Psuedacris crucifer), especially the mating pairs (two for the price of one :wink: ). I bet they are perfect for nepenthes and other carnivorous plants except for the fly trap, they are too small to activate the spring trap.


----------



## Scott (Feb 17, 2004)

Fungus gnats.

You need to seal your cultures better.

They SUCK.

s


----------



## Guest (Jul 30, 2005)

I dont think they are fungus gnats as I see them on the windows of my apartment.


----------



## Scott (Feb 17, 2004)

I missed the abdomen to abdomen part. I think you're right.

I forget what these are called - but I've not seen them in springtail cultures before.

They are faster than hell though.

s



Khamul1of9 said:


> I dont think they are fungus gnats as I see them on the windows of my apartment.


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

If they are really fast then they may be phorid flies as opposed to fungal gnats. 

Ed


----------



## Jace King (May 5, 2004)

Ive had these guys on and off for over a 2 years. I must be the most laidback person when it comes to insects invading my stuff. I just feed everything that i get. Red mites, White mites (actually have a culture of them), the sticking together insect of this post, also fungus gnats. I feed the baby spiders i come across, just scoop and lower them down on the spiders own web, right into the frogs mouth.. I love those little light gray bugs that infest vivs. They come out in droves some days and my biggest frogs can be seen eating seemingly nothing. I can barely see them, i guess the frogs have better eyesight than me cause they strike rapidly and eat tons.


----------



## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

I've gotten these guys for the first time this year as well. 



Scott said:


> I missed the abdomen to abdomen part. I think you're right.
> 
> I forget what these are called - but I've not seen them in springtail cultures before.
> 
> ...


----------



## Derrick (Oct 28, 2005)

sounds like they are phorid flies. I had a centipede and it was delivered with phorid flies and what do you know..........that is one of the few things that will actually kill a centipede. They are fast when they run. And a lot skinnier than fruit flies. Their larva like to burrow into the soil if it is kept moist. I had some in my dart tank and every time I saw one I killed it. Now, luckily I have not seen one for a while. The soil may be too moist for them to take hold. I would guess Phorid flies


----------



## Guest (Jan 5, 2006)

I had these super fast Phorid flies invade a culture about a month ago. But they were about the size of hydie. How can they invade a closed culture? I've seen a couple of posts bring these up recently. 
I started a culture of melos, I would have seen this larger faster fly in the culture, and about 2 weeks after the first hatch of the culture, there were all of a sudden about 30 of them zooming all over the place. Is there any way they can be laying dormant in the media? But that was the one and only time I have seen them, and have used the same bag of instant media several times without them???
Where the _frog_ are these things coming from?


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

They are not laying dormant in the media. These guys are rapid opportunists and will shoot into an open culture and lay eggs. They will also lay eggs around the sponge caps of cultures and the larva will invade the culture. 

They are found pretty much everywhere in the envoroment where there is moisture and rotting vegetation and will rapidly invade homes. 


Ed


----------

