# they have gone wild!!!



## Guest (Aug 1, 2005)

My fruit fly culture has gone wild. I am very sure, not to allow any contaminent to enter but when I opened my culture to use it this morning the whole thing flew away. By the thousands. Thank God I was not in my greenhouse. I have heard of a few culs reverting back to the full winged stage but this was thousands and thousands, and thousands. : o ( 

Is this how it always is??? I am relatively new at this.Barb

Yahoo IM waretrop


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## joshsfrogs (May 6, 2004)

A wild one must have got in. I hear it only takes one. Only happened once to me and I found my cup had cracked from pounding the frogs down. Now I only use the softer plastic cups.


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## Guest (Aug 1, 2005)

I think I am going to have to set up a clean tank where I will place the new cultures into, that will have gloves built into it. 

I never use the cultures for over a week. I distroy them when I am done with them.

I think they could do a number in my greenhouse. I have visions of me breathing then in...out there.

I will start on my clean tank this evening.Barb

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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Barb,
What mutation were you using? There is at least one functionless wing mutation that produces normal wings when cultured too warm. Does your mutation normally have wings? If so, this may be what happened.

Cheers,
Chris


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## Lukeomelas (Mar 15, 2005)

Chris,

Can you tell us what form will produce normal wings at high temps? I've had a few cultures get warm and produce some flyers, but the whole group couldn't fly?

Thanks,

Luke


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## kleinhanz (Oct 18, 2004)

Mixing two differnt mutations will give you flying offspring. I mixed vestigial winged with gliders and POW...flyers

Also, a wt FF could have gotten in when setting up your cultures. The "normal" wing gene is dominate over the recesive mutated wings so the F1's will have the ability to fly.


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## Guest (Aug 1, 2005)

Hi Chirs, I had 2 different sizes. I always make 2 batches of each.I really don't know much about them but they all had little deformed wings from the get-go.They showed no hint of flying at the beginning.

I am frantic because I have plants, many, many, Bonsai, just outside my house that must go into the greenhouse within 2 months. I guess I must use something to deter them from propagating in the pots.

Yes,yes,yes,it's been hot,hot,hot.I am in NJ.

This was what my face looked like when I opened that deli cup in my kitchen. :shock: OH! I need to house clean.. Barb

http://community.webshots.com/user/waretrop


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Barb,

D. melanogaster is naturalized across the entire globe. Your plants probably see a wild type melanogaster every day or so, whether they are inside your house or outside. These insects are basically harmless unless you are growing bonsai fruit trees. But then again the fly maggots will only attack the fruit not the trees themselves. 

As far as which mutation is heat sensitive, I can’t recall. I know that it was one of the flies with a loss of function mutation for flying, not the wingless (apterous) variety.

If you cannot keep your culturing temps below 80 F and the flying fruit flies are really bothering you, purchase a culture of apterous Drosophila melanogaster. Carolina biological sells them as may some of the insect specialists on the board.


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## Guest (Aug 2, 2005)

I can't have these bugs around like this. I have to start using poison tomorrow morning.Also, I will keep the flies in the basement where it stays cooler. I think that is the answer for me. I think I have thousands in my house.Barb Yahoo IM waretrop

http://community.webshots.com/user/waretrop


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## kleinhanz (Oct 18, 2004)

poison in air + dart frogs = dead


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## Guest (Aug 2, 2005)

Thank you. I'll be careful :~) Barb


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## Arklier (Mar 1, 2004)

Don't use insecticide. Darts are very sensative creatures and I wouldn't risk it. If you need to trap the flies, try setting out a 2 liter bottle half full of a 50/50 mixture of vinegar (red wine and apple cider work the best, I've found) with a funnel leading in taped to the top. The flies will be attracted to the vinegar, land on the funnel, crawl in, then not be able to get out. Another alternative is to take a clear plastic bag with a narrow end (like the kind Subway gives you a sandwich in) and place a piece of fruit in it. The plastic bags you buy frozen fruit such as strawberries or blueberries works great too with the added bonus that you don't have to put fruit in them. Flies will come in to get to the fruit. Return every 15 minutes or so and grab the bag by the open end, then beat the crap out of it against a hard surface to kill the flies. Wash, rinse, repeat.


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

No need for a funnel, just put a disposable cup in an out of the way place, with a little vinegar, and water, the ratio doesn't matter, and add a drop or two of dish soap. The soap reduces the surface tension, and will allow the flies to drown in the liquid. I have found it to be a great way at controlling fliers.


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## Guest (Aug 2, 2005)

Thank you all. I will think about this. I can't sell plants with bugs. I have decided to make a clean box to start my new cultures and keep them in my basement to rid myself of this problem in the future. 

I don't know what the heat has to do with it nor can I see that the engineering can revert back to the wild so quickly. It was only about 2 generations. This is absolute because I take all adults out after a specific amount of time and only have new hatchlings available.I also have only had the lid off for about 5 seconds at a time so that contaminates won't get into my cultures. When I take flies out, I put them into a second deli cup and put the lids on within seconds.

I bet the origional culture was contaminated before I even got it.Barb


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## Arklier (Mar 1, 2004)

I had the same thing happen once with some fruit flies I ordered online. The vendor fixed the problem so I will not give out the source. Anyway, the cultures were fine for the first 'generation', but when I made the second 'generation' of cultures, I started spotting fliers in the cultures before I had even opened them. This was at the end of November, so it's not like there were a lot of wild flies out and about. So it might be possible for them to spontaneously regain the capability of flight, but I have worked with hundreds of cultures since then, and none have ever had the same problem.


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