# Fruit fly culture issues... seems like a lot of fruit flies are dead, stuck to walls?



## Smurf (Nov 29, 2014)

I'm not sure if I just happened to see this this time or if it is a new problem, but there seems to be a lot of fruit flies stuck to the sides of the plastic culture container. The walls look like there is a thin layer of transparent material on it that looks sticky. Also, when I try to shake fruit flies out I am having difficulty because they seem to be able to hang onto the walls with whatever material is on there.

Any experience with this? It has been really hard to get fruit flies out without spilling a ton everywhere because they just won't shake out.


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## dmartin72 (Oct 27, 2004)

Sounds too moist humid in there. Are you stacking your cultures on top of each other or in a drawer? They need decent ventilation.


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## 0val (Jul 16, 2011)

I had the same issue where the cultures developed a white substance in my culture of spring tales and fruit flies. I had them in a location that was near a window that gets sun in the morning and they were stacked. After un-stacking the cultures and moving them to another area two days later everything was normal. I believe it was due to the high heat we have been having lately and being stacked. The issue were only on the bottom cultures.


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## Aquarimax (Jun 25, 2015)

Smurf said:


> I'm not sure if I just happened to see this this time or if it is a new problem, but there seems to be a lot of fruit flies stuck to the sides of the plastic culture container. The walls look like there is a thin layer of transparent material on it that looks sticky. Also, when I try to shake fruit flies out I am having difficulty because they seem to be able to hang onto the walls with whatever material is on there.
> 
> Any experience with this? It has been really hard to get fruit flies out without spilling a ton everywhere because they just won't shake out.



Is this a culture that was recently shipped to you? If so, it could just be that some of the medium got sloshed around in transit. I had that happen to me, and most or all of the adult flies died. A short while later, though, masses of larvae emerged from the medium to pupate, and my culture was back in business. 
If, on the other hand, this is a culture you put together, I haven't encountered that issue.


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## Smurf (Nov 29, 2014)

I think it might be humidity. I noticed after I posted this that I had accidentally switched lids from all old culture onto this new culture, probably since I started it. I think the lid fabric gets clogged over time, so maybe it was trapping the humidity in. It seems a little better now, and the culture is producing pretty well, so I guess I'll just roll with it.


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