Re: Fruit flies, but nuts sink

David Purks (telenet!twinkie!dkpurks@uunet.uu.net)
Wed, 28 Sep 1994 10:27:53 -0400 (EDT)

>
> > Best would be the flightless "vestigial winged" or "Curly winged" mutants.
> > You can load these in to an old empty Parmesian Cheese dispenser and
> > liberally sprinkle the flies over your collection!
>
> Make sure you label it well or you'll get a hell of a shock
> next time you have spaghetti! :-)
>
> > I wonder if it is possible to home-breed these bugs to maintain a
> > constant supply... much as I home-raised earthworms for my South
> > American cichlids.
> >
> Drosophila ( beloved of Drosera? :-) can be raised easily in
> yoghurt pots containing a spoonful of mashed banana and some
> crumpled paper for pupation ( I used to breed mantids. ) If
> you cut out a piece of stocking ( your wife will be pleased :)
> you can elastic band it over the top to prevent too many escapees.
> You need to change the banana fortnightly or so, and keep it
> in a warm place. Voila, an endless supply ( you do inevitably

Watch keeping your fruit fly cultures too warm. I understand that
many of these mutations are temperature dependent - at high temps
(not sure what's considered high, I can probably find out if anyone's
interested) the normal "wild type" character is displayed. Your nice
non-flying food could turn into the pest that wouldn't die!