Starting a fruit fly culture can be incredibly useful, whether you need them as feeders for your small pets or for scientific projects. While purchasing specific fruit fly strains online is an option, catching wild fruit flies is a surprisingly easy and cost-effective alternative, especially if you’re looking for winged varieties. This guide will walk you through a straightforward method to catch those wild fruit flies right in your backyard and establish your own thriving culture.
Step 1: Prepare Your Fruit Fly Trap
The key to attracting fruit flies is bait, and fermented fruit is irresistible to them. Begin by placing a piece of fermented mango peel into a deli cup. If you don’t have fermented fruit readily available, a bit of apple cider vinegar added to your regular culture medium will also work as an attractant. The strong scent of fermentation is what draws fruit flies in quickly and effectively.
Step 2: Set Up the Outdoor Trap
Next, create a lid for your deli cup using aluminum wire screen. This screen lid is crucial because the small openings will allow fruit flies to enter while preventing larger insects from getting to the bait. Place the screen lid on the deli cup and set it outdoors in a sheltered location where it won’t be disturbed. Observe the size of the fruit flies in your area; if they are particularly small, you might need to slightly enlarge the screen holes. You can easily do this by gently pushing a sharpened pencil or another pointy object into the holes to widen them just a bit.
Step 3: Capture and Secure the Fruit Flies
After a few days, check your trap. You should see a noticeable gathering of fruit flies inside the cup. If you observe maggots in the medium, it’s a good sign that fruit flies have laid eggs and your trap is working. At this point, quickly and carefully cover the screen lid with saran wrap to trap the flies inside. To make handling them easier, place the entire cup in the refrigerator for a brief period, about one to two minutes, to gently knock the fruit flies unconscious. Be very cautious not to leave them in the fridge for too long, as this can be fatal.
Step 4: Transfer Flies to a New Culture
Once the fruit flies are temporarily subdued, work swiftly. Remove the screen lid and quickly take out the mango peel, scraping off any maggots you see back into the culture medium. Add some excelsior or a similar climbing medium into the deli cup – this gives the flies a surface to climb on and helps prevent them from getting stuck in the culture medium. Finally, seal the cup with a new, breathable fabric lid to allow for air circulation while preventing escape. Let the flies warm up and awaken in their new home.
From this point, your fruit fly culture should take off and flourish. You can easily create subsequent cultures from this initial one, ensuring a continuous supply of fruit flies. This method is not only easy but also incredibly economical. By reusing cups and making your own culture medium, the cost is minimal, making it a budget-friendly way to obtain fruit flies for various needs.
