Fruit Fly Care Sheet

Fruit Fly Care Sheet

Fruit flies are a perfect feeder insect for smaller reptiles or hatchlings such as baby chameleons, frogs, Paroedura Pictus, Bearded Dragons, etc.
Fly cultures can be kept at room temperature (around 72 degrees F).You should avoid freezing temperatures and temperatures above 100 degrees F.

After the initial culture is set up new flies begin to emerge in about two weeks. A new fruit fly culture will continue to produce fruit flies for about a month. Females will lay up to two-hundred eggs in the medium mixture. The eggs will hatch after two days and the larvae will feed on the yeast for seven to twenty days. The larvae will begin to climb up the sides of the vessel to dryer areas to pupate and transform into adult flies in a couple of days. The new flies are ready to mate within two days and have a life expectancy of a little more than two weeks.

Start a new culture when the original culture is two to three weeks old and before any flies are removed for any other purposes. For a continuous supply of fruit flies, always set up a new culture before taking flies from a culture. Cultures should not be kept longer than six weeks.

Fruit flies can be raised on a variety of fermenting plant materials but using prepared medium is the easiest. This can be ordered from most people who breed the fruit flies or from a biological supplier.

Equal amount of prepared medium and water are mixed together and a few grains of dry viable yeast are added. Six to ten grains per culture is sufficient of the dry yeast. Take care not to use more yeast than the specified amount as this can cause sterilization of the flies or even death.

You may also want to make your own medium. Use the following recipe for making your own medium:

1 cup of water
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 teaspoon agar (available at health food stores)
1 tablespoon molasses
1/8 teaspoon calcium proprionate (available at chemical suppliers)
1 package baking yeast

Except for the yeast mix all ingredients above and boil. Pour the mixture into culture vessels. Cover the vessels and place in the refrigerator until you are ready for them.

When you are ready to use the cultures sprinkle six to ten grains of yeast into the culture. Your home prepared medium is now ready for the fruit flies.

After preparing the medium add a dozen or more fruit flies to the vessel. This should remain undisturbed for about ten days. After ten days you may start another culture with the flies from this vessel or feed them off.

Transparent vials or bottles of glass or plastic can be used as a culture vessels. Vessels should be clean but they do not need to be sterilized when the medium is properly prepared.

Plastic foam or nonabsorbent cotton can be used as plugs for the vials. You may also use pieces of fabric and rubberbands for covering the tops of the vessels.