# Flightless Flies yet lots of fliers in the house



## prairiehugger (Aug 12, 2014)

Hi,

So, I recently got into darts this summer and my melanogaster and hydei colonies are doing great. However, I'm noticing quite a few *flying* flies around the house that look a lot like my hydei (although, they do not have orange eyes). When I open my fly drawers, often some fly out (not out of the deli cup, but where I keep all the colonies in deli cups). Are these flies attracted to my flies? Where are they coming from? I've never had them here before.

Any help would be great, thanks.


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## mongo77 (Apr 28, 2008)

Of course they are going to be attracted to the media, just like the flightless ones are, but they must be getting into your house somehow. There is a chance that they were always around but you're more focus on them now due to them being around your cultures. I would put a small bottle filled with some cider vinegar near your cultures to trap the fliers. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the flies might be able to mate threw the thin fabric of your culture lids and this would result in your cultures producing fliers.


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## ChrisAZ (Sep 6, 2012)

I've often noticed native fruit flies being attracted to any fruit I leave laying around too long. It would make perfect sense that they would be attracted to your cultures. Some people like starting cultures of flying fruit flies to feed to arboreal frogs, being that they will have to work to catch their food, thus keeping them active and in good shape.


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## JimO (May 14, 2010)

Some people confuse wingless melanogaster with "Turkish Gliders", which are flightless, but they have wings and they can hop and glide a good distance. If they are truly flying, you might want to pick up a fresh culture and keep it separate from the others. Then you can phase out your current cultures with the new one. Once the cultures start producing fliers, it means that some genetic diversity has been introduced and it typically gets worse over time.


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## scooter7728 (Sep 1, 2014)

every now and then I get a flier in my tank somehow? but its fun watching the frogs try to catch it.


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## ryubui (Aug 21, 2014)

You can make a cheap flying fruit fly trap to get rid of them ^^

a flying one probably got in your culture and multiplied


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## FroggyKnight (Mar 14, 2013)

ryubui said:


> a flying one probably got in your culture and multiplied


Or what I have found to be more likely, one snuck into the frog tank. Every now and then I will watch a wild fruit fly commit suicide by entering a frog tank. My tanks aren't very fruit fly proof by the way and they just seem to come and go 

I've only had one culture become flying and that was because I used a messed up lid that had a big hole allowing wild ones to enter the culture.

I often find flying fruit flies on or around my cultures because they are attracted by them. I wouldn't worry prairiehugger, that shouldn't be a real problem, unless the flies really bug you. If you want you can set up fruit fly traps with apple vinegar to take the population down a notch.

John


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