# Dusting Fruit Flies: Your method?



## Glasious (Nov 12, 2008)

I'm just wondering what are different peoples methods for dusting flies and putting them into the Vivarium. Do they dust them in the colony? put them into a container to dust? 
I ask to determine the best method, because my method is rather messy. I pour the flies into a container, dust them, them transfer to another container to reduce the amount of calcium dust i pour into the tank.


----------



## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Hi James,

Some people use screens or sifters and thats find but the more you become used to dusting ,transfering FF in any form - the easier it will become.

I just knock the flie culture cup a few times with smacks to the sides in order to both make the flies active and collect them on one side ( I am also tilting the culture container as I am tapping it). Make sense?

I then keep tapping the culture container and shake the flies into another identical plastic 32 oz culture cup that is already filled with either Calcium or vitamin powder. 

The key here is to only have just the right amount of powder as to coat the flies but not in excess which will transfer into the viv and drop off the dusted flies. This too will become easy with time and repetition

When the flies are fully transfered into the "dusting cup", I start to "swirl" or otherwise give the cup a semi vigorous shaking. This also has the added effect of slightly disorienting the flies and making them even easier for the frogs to find and eat them quickly - especially effective with Hydei who are climbers.

I also continue to tap the dusting cup but this time I tap directly on the BOTTOM of the cup as I am holding the cup at an angle, and this action has the effect of seperating the flies from the powder. The flies will always go to the top of the "powder pile' which forms in the bottom of the tilted cup and stays there as a result of constant tapping.

- just my method which does not involve sifters or extra equiptment. This technique will take some time to accomplish with confidence and speed but that will not take too long.

This would be FAR easier to demonstrate with a utube video...I only I had that kind of energy and motivation....

Hope that helps,

Phil


----------



## andre2000lb (Dec 30, 2007)

Philsuma said:


> Hi James,
> 
> Some people use screens or sifters and thats find but the more you become used to dusting ,transfering FF in any form - the easier it will become.
> 
> ...


It's not utube, but should still help....
Dusting Food for Poisonous Dart Frogs | Expert Village Videos


----------



## Philsuma (Jul 18, 2006)

Man, Rich from Black Jungle has a vid for everything!

Did you see the size of that vitamin jar? lol

What he did NOT cover was the real question of the OP.

1. If you go "light" on the powder as Rich does, you can just dump away and not really worry about the miniscule dust going into the viv

or

2. If your'e like me, you will have excess powder in the dusting cup and it will stay in the cup for a week or so despite the "probability" that it may degrade.

If you tap the bottom vigorously, the flies will all be on top of the powder and with practice, you will be able to keep tapping them on into the viv and keep the remaining powder in the cup.

and if you get some stray powder on your favourite brom or the cherished creeping fig that you are all proud of...just mist it off...no worries for excess powder in the viv.


----------



## hobbyuniverse (Jun 22, 2008)

I put some supplement in a freezer bag (1 gallon size). I then take the lid off my culture and put the whole thing in the bag. I can then shake how many flies I want out into the bag with no escapees. I remove and re-lid the culture then I shake the bag a little and tilt so everything goes to one end. Then I slightly tip the bag the other way and all the flies wiggle their way to the other corner. Once there, I twist the remaining supplement in the opposite corner and dump the flies into the viv. Sounds complicated but its fast with no mess and no escapees.


----------



## AlexF (Sep 26, 2007)

I dump the ff into a cup with the powder and completely cover them. I then use a sifter I got at Target and just dump the ff and excess powder into the sifter and shake the powder back into the container I keep the powder in. 

I drop the ff into the vivs from the strainer without coating the viv with powder.


----------



## Glasious (Nov 12, 2008)

Thanx for all the techniques, I may try a few/combination of them!


----------



## Shady (Sep 18, 2007)

Philsuma said:


> Hi James,
> 
> Some people use screens or sifters and thats find but the more you become used to dusting ,transfering FF in any form - the easier it will become.
> 
> ...


I use pretty much the same technique, but i use a small cup that I believe is supposed to be for some alcoholic beverage, like a whiskey glass, the inner base of the cup kind of funnels, which really helps from keepin the fruit flies from tryin to climb up the sides.. I also use a funnel when dumping the FF in from there 32 oz culture as to catch all the jumpers and put them directly into the cup instead of all over my counter  I use a rather big funnel like one you would use to put in oil into a car (my friend uses a funnel thats used for food for his frogs, which is much smaller and a big pain in the you know what as it doesnt catch all the flies like the bigger one does.) After the flies are in I dump my dust right on to the flies and give them a swirl.. I feed my Azureus on a "feeding leaf" as I like to call it, which is just a magnolia leaf thats right in the middle of the tank(for perfect viewing of course.) Anyway, I tend to get a decent amount of excess dust but since i'm dumping it onto the leaf I feel like it doesn't really matter if i pour all the excess in. I have accidently got some dust on plants but have had no problems, actually my plants are doing really well. Well, I hope this helps. Good luck.


----------



## Jerm (May 20, 2008)

For my younger froglets, i dust the fruitflies then put them in the freezer for a short amount of time, just long enough to stun them. That gives the darts more time to find them when I pour them into the viv.


----------



## nish07 (Mar 16, 2008)

For any one group of frogs that share the same suppliments I have 4 plastic blue Dixie type cups from any supermarket (cheapo brand). I put a little herptivite in one and rep-cal in the other. then with the other two empty cups I slide them into the cups with vits to seal them (close enough) closed.

When I add flies, I remove the top cup that covers the vits and tip it on its top so that it doesn't become contaminated with anything betore setting it down. I tap my ff culture into the cup with vitamins, swish it around, and tap the flies out. I then replace the cup to close the vits off from the light. I'm replacing the vits in the cup every week and changing rep-cal and herptivite every other day. This method seems to work well for me.

-Nish


----------



## Greg (Dec 25, 2007)

I just use a second cup, that is I shake a dozen or two flies out of the culture and into a second cup and then put a pinch of of Repti-Cal or Herptivite into that cup. Then I shake that second cup a bit to get the powder on all the flies and the shake the flies into the the frog tank. It works great for me & my frogs seem to agree with it as well.


----------



## abcat (Oct 1, 2008)

I put the powder in a glass, put the glass in my freezer for 1/2 an hour, then dump the flies in. It stops them from moving almost instantly and has never killed any of them. The flies are back to normal in a couple minutes of being in the viv


----------



## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Ive given up on all the "special" methods and just put the ffs in a cup, add dust, and then feed. With other second cup methods or reusing the dust it seems the later ffs were not dusted as well. The supplements in most cases is not fine enough to allow it to stick as well as one my like so using fresh supplements each feeding seems to offer the best chance of it sticking.


----------

