# Fruit fly culture drying out



## Amphiman (Nov 8, 2007)

My cultures are drying out...is there any way i can prevent this from happening with out keeping my flys to cold...it stays about 65-70 in the house.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

you can avoid it by adding a little more extra water when you make the culture, you have to experiment and see what works best in your environment.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

One thing I've found that helps is leaving the filler (coffee filters in my case) out of the culture until I start to see maggots. Coffee filters do a good job of soaking up water from the cultures. The other thing you can do is mist your cultures/add water to them if you see them getting dry - I have to do that on occasion.


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

Winter house conditions aren't necessarily the best for culturing flies without a little planning. I find that I need to add more water initially to keep the media from drying too rapidly until the larvae can start churning it up ( I use Josh's media which calls for 1/2 cup of media to 2/3 cup of water- I have to add a little more than that to offset the drying). Haven't needed to spray excelsior with water before adding to the culture, but that wouldn't certainly help.

Are your cultures out in the open? You may want to consider a drawer system or other container to keep humidity up. There have been a couple of threads about this recently.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I definately second the adding a touch more water when you start the culture and keep them in a more closed off container. During the winter my cultures dry out faster so I keep them in sweater boxes with the lid loosely on to keep most of the humidity from the culture in, otherwise the dry winter air sucks all the moisture right out.


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## bruce (Feb 23, 2007)

*FF cultures drying out*

I routinely close off 1/2 the holes on top of the ff container with plastic strapping tape, like a "X" before culturing. (Mertens idea)
I use dry heat in the food room and do this throughout the year.
B.


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## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

*Re: FF cultures drying out*



bruce said:


> I routinely close off 1/2 the holes on top of the ff container with plastic strapping tape, like a "X" before culturing. (Mertens idea)
> I use dry heat in the food room and do this throughout the year.
> B.


yeah, but that is a lot more tedius then just adding more water.


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## bruce (Feb 23, 2007)

*dry cultures*

Did I mention that's why we have nephews..............


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

You can only add so much water before you start messing up your culture... adding a little to make it last a little longer is one thing, but you don't want to turn it to soup and deal with drowning the insects you're trying to culture, not to mention trying to feed out of a culture that is slop....


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

> adding a little to make it last a little longer is one thing, but you don't want to turn it to soup and deal with drowning the insects you're trying to culture, not to mention trying to feed out of a culture that is slop....


Been there, done that :? Can we say 'fine line'?


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

That's why I generally advise to make the media perfect with no extra water and then stick it in a container to keep the humidity high to aviod evaporation  Much easier... and keeps it all nice and tidy for those you have to live with 

I just picked up the 3 shelf rubbermaid containers for my FFs from CVS and I'm very excited about them


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

> I just picked up the 3 shelf rubbermaid containers for my FFs from CVS and I'm very excited about them


Are you building any supplemental heating into those containers, or just relying on ambient? My production is consistently good with normal room temps (the room where the vivs and CXs are is also my home office- stays about 68-70 with occasional supplemental from a space heater). The room has a slate floor, so it can get cool but never overly so.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I am just going to use ambient room temps. I bought two to stack on each other and will likely use the highest bins for flies, and the lower ones for stuff that either likes it cooler, or supplies.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Ive had luck with the plastic shelf containers, and whenever the cultures begin to dry out (about 3 weeks old for me), I add a few cups of water into the bottom of the container itself, so the FF cultures are sitting in it. This seems to keep the humidity up, and it works! I think Josh recommended it to me, but I really dont remember


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## SirGunther (Jun 4, 2014)

Will the water keep mites out as well?

Edit: Like a dummy, I asked a question on a six-year-old post. Way to make a good first impression. Please forgive the thread necromancy.


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