# glass jars?



## Guest (Mar 1, 2005)

where can i find some glass jars to culture fruit flys? as i rather just clean out a couple glass jars then have to keep buying plastic containers. thanks


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## Darks!de (Nov 16, 2004)

ACE hardware and michaels crafts have them for cheap.

Luke


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## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

I got mine at the grocery store. Just ask for mason jars for canning. I recommend the wide mouth, quart jars.


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## Guest (Mar 1, 2005)

really any grocery store will have these i guess it makes sense but can't say i've ever seen them otherwise i'll try micheal's as well.


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## Dunner97074 (Sep 19, 2004)

I'm not a glass jar guy, but check one of the warehouse places like BJ's, Costco, etc. I use my old large juice bottles, since I'm drinking the juice anyway it's sort of recycling before I recycle them. So I don't have tto buy any containers.
Mike


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

As already stated you can get them about any place. I will say though from coming from all glass jars I DO NOT miss cleaning them out at all. After some wife advice I switched and can say I will never go back.


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## Guest (Mar 2, 2005)

Try walmart. I got 12 for like 16 bucks canadian.


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## Michelle (Sep 13, 2004)

I’m a glass jar person, not that I love it, its just I cant bring myself to throw all that plastic away…. Otherwise I would go plastic…. They aren’t pleasant to clean LOL
Anyway to your question, yes you can get them almost anywhere, but another place I found them for cheap was the thrift shop :wink: they were I think 25cents each 
:shock: 
later
Michelle


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## mydumname (Dec 24, 2004)

Why does everyone think plastic containers are tough to clean. I just pull the excelsior out, which pulls all the dead bugs and pieces of media. Then I spray the inside with the sink sprayer thing and it shoots most of the empty larva sacks off. The rest come off with a paper towel. I am yet to have a problem doing this.


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## Michelle (Sep 13, 2004)

Oh you clean your plastic? Well that’s different; I kind of thought the reason for plastic was to be able to throw it away... hummm I wonder if the plastic ones would be easier to clean then.... hummmm I will have to go get some and try it


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

I prefer plastic over mason jars because I can stack them easily, they don't break, and they are light. My space is limited so if I can fit 100 32oz. plastic cups on one shelf or 50 mason jars that weigh more, I am going to go with plastic. I used mason jars for two years, and I had good production, but I had jars everywhere, because it is hard to stack them and still have good airflow. I know a frogger with a huge collection that still uses them and has for years, so it is all a matter of personal preference.


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## mydumname (Dec 24, 2004)

The plastics are disposable, but I figure why not just reuse them if they can be cleaned. If you saw an unused one and a washed one, you couldn't tell the difference. The lids are tough, I don't clean them. Some get dirty, others don't. I have the white lides with all the wholes and cloth covering.


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## yuri (Feb 18, 2004)

*endocrine disruptors*

One thing to be keenly aware of is the possibility of chemicals leaching from plastics. If you think washing gets rid of the problem, it actually helps some chemicals leach out. When you consider that the fruit fly medium is 'wet', then there may be chemicals leaching into the medium and maybe into the fly larvae, and maybe into your frogs. Well what are a few more chemicals going to do to your frogs? Read up on endocrine disruptors.

These interesting chemicals influence hormonal activity in a variety of ways. In humans they have been linked to increases in certain cancers, decreased sperm counts, developmental problems.

This is why I use glass mason jars. For the top I use unbleached coffee filters (some bleaching agents leave residues like dioxins - another good one to read up one).

So, when you throw out your plastic fruit fly containers, you are just throwing the problem somewhere else. It takes a very long time for the plastics to break down and they continue to leach out chemicals. You might be thinking this is bunch of bull, but look into the problems with male America Alligators and how they are affected by endocrin disruptors. Pretty scary.


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

That is interesting Yuri, I will do more research, I may be switching back to mason jars. My friend who uses mason jars gets more production from his frogs than me and a friend who use the plastic, do you think their could be a correlation?


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## Jace King (May 5, 2004)

I have been cleaning the same 150 or so EDs containers for about a year. Your scaring me, i dont want to have buy disposables.


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

*Re: endocrine disruptors*

Yuri,

Don't forget to include paper towels! A lot of people swear by using them - but they have a lot of chemicals in them too. 

Melis





yuri said:


> One thing to be keenly aware of is the possibility of chemicals leaching from plastics. If you think washing gets rid of the problem, it actually helps some chemicals leach out. When you consider that the fruit fly medium is 'wet', then there may be chemicals leaching into the medium and maybe into the fly larvae, and maybe into your frogs. Well what are a few more chemicals going to do to your frogs? Read up on endocrine disruptors.
> 
> These interesting chemicals influence hormonal activity in a variety of ways. In humans they have been linked to increases in certain cancers, decreased sperm counts, developmental problems.
> 
> ...


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## yuri (Feb 18, 2004)

I use products from Seventh Generation <http://www.seventhgeneration.com>. They have some good information on their website.

As to whether or not the differences in fly production between plastic and glass, you would really have to approach it scientifically and run experiments accordingly. Otherwise it is speculating.

As to scaring you, well that is the opposite of what these companies who make this stuff want to do. It is scary. It is a problem. Look into it.


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

I was refering to frog production, his frogs lay many more eggs, I have no problem with fly production.


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## yuri (Feb 18, 2004)

geckguy said:


> I was refering to frog production, his frogs lay many more eggs, I have no problem with fly production.


Okay, frog production. I still think you need to make side by side comparisons in order to get a better answer than just guessing.

WILD SPECULATION WARNING -- But, just going by what I have read and making grand assumptions, it is within the realm of possibility that it could affect frog production. In males (alligators and humans) the endocrine disruptors have been shown to adversly affect reproductive organs. SO, with enough exposure, your male frogs could have a decreased reproductive ability. Still, this is just speculating on my part and should only be interpreted with that in mind. There may be studies out there, properly conducted with control groups that have measured this effect (maybe not in dart frogs, but some other taxa).


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## Arklier (Mar 1, 2004)

Want to see something really scary? Check this out. It appeared in the local paper this morning:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/story/4726858p-4362067c.html


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## Jace King (May 5, 2004)

I thought chinooks were helicopters. I wonder what the people at Eds Fly Meat thinks about the reusing of Fly culture cups. Please chime in, I found reusing your cups to be the most cost effective means of mass fly production. It really sucks to clean em, but the flip side is like $500 a year or more in cups.


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## Arklier (Mar 1, 2004)

The helicopter is named after the fish, which is in turn named after an indian tribe. Chinook (pronounced shinook) are also known as king salmon and are the largest of the Pacific salmon species.










As for the cups, I buy mine from from Superior with the pre-drilled poly-covered lids. The lids get too icky to reuse, but I've been thinking about washing and reusing the containers and just ordering more lids.


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## Blort (Feb 5, 2005)

From what I could find, a lot of this is still in the research phase at least at the EPA and FDA. From what I understand about polymers is that most come from precursor chemicals such as prepolymers and plasticizers and are thermoplastics. All of which can vary widely from polymer to polymer. In addition, sometimes additives are thrown in the mix. For example, most hard plastics such as acrylic have UV resistant additives, etc. Now, most plastics and elastomers also have a relatively low melting point (which is what allows some to be recylced easily). Below this temperature, the plastics are stable and depending on the amount of cross-linking in the plastic, rigid. The reason some plastics are considered microwave safe is because they are designed for higher temperatures. From what I undestand, the point where the plastic becomes pliable versus starts to break down is different for different plastics, but can be less that 200F. In addition, plastics are subject to several kinds of attack the most notable being: UV, heat, and biological (biological not a big deal for most other than polyurethane). It really is a guessing game as to what the effects are it is pretty difficult to determine what chemicals are released when the polymer breaks down.


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## Blort (Feb 5, 2005)

Arklier said:


> The helicopter is named after the fish, which is in turn named after an indian tribe. Chinook (pronounced shinook) are also known as king salmon and are the largest of the Pacific salmon species.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The helicopter is named after the Indian tribe not the fish. All Army aircraft are named after indian tribes, eg., Apache, Mohawk (no longer in service), Blackhawk, Comanche (no longer funded), Kiowa Warrior, Huey (short for Iriquios), etc. The only exceptions I can think of is the Cobra (which I think may have a Native American name as well) and the RC-12 fixed wing. I always found this ironic and somewhat in poor taste given the US Army's role in decimating the Native Americans.

Interesting link about the chinook (fish). That whole PBDE thing is what keeps me away from the GS foam.


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