# Mason jars



## NM Crawler (Jan 23, 2012)

Hey guys, looking to switch over to wide mouth mason jars and was wondering what other material could be used besides coffee filters? Would like to glue something in place. Was thinking about .03 micron filters just not sure how they would hold up with bleaching and cleaning. Thanks


David


----------



## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Ask Frogparty. I believe he has used .3 micron filters for culturing flies. I think they would work fine. I've run a couple through the dishwasher with no problems, but not repeatedly.


----------



## NM Crawler (Jan 23, 2012)

Sounds good Doug, going to shoot him a pm. Thanks


----------



## Fantastica (May 5, 2013)

I've heard someone suggest the plastic needlecraft canvas in strips, but not sure how much moisture they would absorb.


----------



## Splash&Dash (Oct 16, 2012)

Fantastica said:


> I've heard someone suggest the plastic needlecraft canvas in strips, but not sure how much moisture they would absorb.


they don't absorb any. but my experience with the stuff was iffy: some flies seemed capable of pushing through (mels) the screening material.

I could use the cultures to still feed out, so it wasn't like a mass evacuation, but I noticed many more escapees


----------



## Fantastica (May 5, 2013)

I completely misunderstood your post! I thought you were talking about media, not lids. Oops!


----------



## Taari (Nov 6, 2012)

What I do is buy the plastic solid mason jar lids, like these Amazon.com: Bernardin Mason Jar Caps - Plastic - Wide: Kitchen & Dining

You should be able to find them in the canning section of most grocery stores (I found them at walmart this time of year)

I then drill a 3/4" hole roughly in the center. 

Then I bought a package of 10 of the 40x40 3" diameter wire-cloth die-cut circles here: McMaster-Carr

In order to make them fit, I had to trim 1/8" from them all the way around (1/4" from the total diameter) but they are re-usable, flies can't escape through them, and have been working quite well so far.


----------



## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

My experience with glass mason jars was short lived. After the first time one gets dropped, and you find 3000 flies making their way to every corner of the house, you may find yourself reconsidering deli cups.
I find them to be much cheaper, and they can be washed and re-used many times. Many of my cups and lids are over 2 years old.


----------



## NM Crawler (Jan 23, 2012)

Pumilo said:


> My experience with glass mason jars was short lived. After the first time one gets dropped, and you find 3000 flies making their way to every corner of the house, you may find yourself reconsidering deli cups.
> I find them to be much cheaper, and they can be washed and re-used many times. Many of my cups and lids are over 2 years old.


Haha, that's my only concern @ this point but going to give them a try and see what comes of it.


----------



## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

Don't work with a booming culture in the kitchen or anywhere where it is a hard surface...that way they will bounce rather than shatter.


----------



## NM Crawler (Jan 23, 2012)

Haha, I'm sol. My down stairs is all tile. Ordering 90mm .3 micro filters today. Have a bunch of 70 mm filters if anyone needs any cheap. Thanks

David


----------



## TDK (Oct 6, 2007)

I use plastic bags from the grocery store, cut corner out the depth of the jar and stick it in the media. It doesn't wick the water and gives plenty of space to pupate on.


----------



## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

Do they make plastic jars with the same size and thread to take lids for glass mason jars?

My one iff with delicups is that the lids tend to get icky since i tend to squish flies when I close them or if incompletely closed flies find their way under the rim to die.


----------



## ZookeeperDoug (Jun 5, 2011)

David, having cleaned the mason jars for our fruit fly cultures at the zoo for the past 5 years, I can almost gaurantee that you'll be back to disposable plastic culture cups in a coupld months. I absolutely hated this task. By the time you use water soap, scrub them out, dry them off, etc... the few cents you're saving won't seem worth it.

I'll talk to you more about it on Friday. BTW - I'll take some of those 70mm microns.


----------



## Reef_Haven (Jan 19, 2011)

Tyvek might work. Express mail and Priority mail envelopes are made from it. I tried a few glued over a 1" square hole cut in regular deli lids. They seem to hold in too much moisture for me, but might work well for canning jar opening which is nearly 3" dia.


----------

