# Paper Plates in FF culture



## ivas (Jan 24, 2009)

When I made my weekly round of fruit fly cultures last week, I ran out of coffee filters. Rather than running to the store, I improvised and used 2 paper plates in each culture. They were cut in half, and folded. I checked on my cultures today, and was astonished to see how many maggots were in this culture! There were about twice as many maggots clinging to the sides in the 'paper plate' cultures as in the 'coffee filter' cultures that I made about one week prior! It also had more pupa than I have ever observed in a one-week-old culture. It has been years since I used excelsior, so I can't comment on how that compares (although I remember having more flies when I used excelsior as compared to coffee filters--but I also had fewer hungry frogs). 

Feel free to try this tip. Let me know how it works for you. I buy my media from Josh's.

Tomas


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## Dendroguy (Dec 4, 2010)

Hmmm,intresting,I've always used paper bags,they seem to work well,Ill have to try that on the next culture


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## Psyko (Apr 5, 2011)

I dont know if anyone has done this but i have a paper shredder and i use shredded paper instead of excelsior. its usually going to go in the recycle so i decided to use it. some of the paper that touches the media gets wet and shrinks but overall it has given me good results


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## fido (Sep 29, 2008)

I have been using plastic grocery bags. Strech them outh the long way, scrunched up to 2" dia. tube, cut the end off and cut 2-3" lengths. Put a couple of lengths standing up in the culture. This leavs many pleats for a massive surface area. Does not slump into the culture when covered by pupa.


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## ivas (Jan 24, 2009)

Wow, I love the idea of recycling my recyclables in fruit fly cultures! I am going to try the paper shredder and plastic bags in my next round of cultures.


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

Yup. I've stopped buying excelsior for a while now. I've been using anything from cardboard, to coffee filters, to toilet paper rolls... I can't believe I havent thought of paper plates... they are next as soon as I run out of the other stuff.


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## frogfreak (Mar 4, 2009)

Any pics of the paper plates in the cultures?


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## tortoisekeeper (Jul 12, 2011)

I use plastic water bottles to make my cultures in. Guppygal gave me the idea and it works great. I have been using excelor but I am going to try the shredded paper.


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## Brian317 (Feb 11, 2011)

awesome ideas !! I may have to try the paper one....

I use spanish moss in mine. It is basically very similiar to excelsior, but i get ALOT more for cheaper....My cultures have been thriving !


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## kickedinthevader (Jan 30, 2011)

Tried paper plates as soon as I saw this post. Here's a picture of mine. I definitely dig this a lot more then coffee filters.


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## onefstsnake (Jul 31, 2008)

The paper plates should hold up alot better than coffee filters.
My filters tend to "melt" into the mix after a few weeks.

I wonder if the mix will need a bit more water to account for the paper plate wicking more water?


Great idea though!


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## Okapi (Oct 12, 2007)

Ill have to try this some time


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## ivas (Jan 24, 2009)

I started using the cultures with paper plates last night (11 days after adding flies). They were swarming with bugs!


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## kate801 (Jul 7, 2011)

I tried using a piece of rolled vinyl screen on my last batch. Figured it wouldn't disintegrate and could be reused. So far I like it!


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