Problem with Fruit Flies

[jajeanpierre]

I just receive my first ever fruit flies. I opened three of the four cups and everything inside seems dead. I poked larvae and flies--nothing moves.

Is this normal?

Are they all dead or will I get some eggs hatching?

I need them in two months when my 12 eggs hatch. I'm very disappointed to say the least.

Suggestions please.

 

[eriksorg]

Possibly your culture got too hot or too cold during shipment. ...contact your supplier and tell them what has happened. ..you still have plenty of time to get cultures going before your babies hatch....

 

[jajeanpierre]

Can someone give me some advice on what is "normal" when buying fruit fly cultures?

I bought four cups of fruit flies from a vendor advertising on this web site.

The shipment arrived quite quickly but when I opened them up, I could not find any signs of life. There were a lot of larvae on the sides of the cup, but nothing moved even when I poked it. The flies I found were dead.

I contacted the vendor and she kept telling me that was "normal" and would take a week. A week is tomorrow.

The larvae on the side of the cups now have a slime around them and if you touch them they dissolve and liquefy. The vendor insists that is all normal.

There is mold growing on the food, the excelsior and the coffee filters. The vendor says this is normal.

I did find about three living larvae a few days ago in one cup (Melanogaster) but don't see any signs of life today although I saw about five plump pupae. Five fruit flies are not likely to be able to feed 12 baby quads set to hatch in a little over a month.

I feel like I am part of the Monty Python Dead Parrot skit.

What should I have received and where can I buy fruit flies that are alive.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Forgot the pictures. I don't know if you can see the slime on the sides around the dead larvae in the first picture. In the second picture, you can see the mold and some dead larvae that liquefy if you so much as touch them. Plus they really stink. Is that normal? Needless to say the vendor says it is. When I was in the pet shop the other day I bought a jar of Melanogaster. There is no mold, no slime and living things. The jar does not have a bad small at all.

 

[shrum]

The slime in the first pic is fine it maybe because your keeping the culture to hot. The second pic shows mold and that's bad....that will cause the culture to crash. It is ok if you have no flies because it looks like you have old larvae on the walls which means you probably have them in your mix as well. I keep dart frogs so cultures are a big thing for me and I found making them myself would be the best way to go. Also you said you need them in a couple if months but your culture will only last four weeks so you will need to make a new one out of that one. And no it should not smell rank it may smell different but I wouldn't say bad.

 

[jajeanpierre]

The slime in the first pic is fine it maybe because your keeping the culture to hot. The second pic shows mold and that's bad....that will cause the culture to crash. It is ok if you have no flies because it looks like you have old larvae on the walls which means you probably have them in your mix as well. I keep dart frogs so cultures are a big thing for me and I found making them myself would be the best way to go. Also you said you need them in a couple if months but your culture will only last four weeks so you will need to make a new one out of that one. And no it should not smell rank it may smell different but I wouldn't say bad.

My chameleon room is the coolest room in the house--maybe 75 and a lot less at night. If I touch one of those larvae, they turn into liquid. They are all dead and were when t hey arrived.

I've had them for 6 days. Should they be that lifeless? I expected to receive live flies.

Yes, I have lots of mason jars and food to make up new batches, but I need something to put in the new jars.

How long do I give it? The vendor said a week.

 

[shrum]

First off I would not accept that from a vendor because that is an unacceptable product to sell IMO. I would personally throw that away and go to petco and get a new culture and start making news ones. If petco by you don't sell them then work with a new vendor or someone here...I would be willing to help in anyway I can. He is right about waiting a week if it will work at all because at that temp things should be fine...I think I see a coffee filter inside too but I don't like using them myself they seem to cause trouble. Where are you getting your mix your going to use ?

 

[jajeanpierre]

First off I would not accept that from a vendor because that is an unacceptable product to sell IMO. I would personally throw that away and go to petco and get a new culture and start making news ones. If petco by you don't sell them then work with a new vendor or someone here...I would be willing to help in anyway I can. He is right about waiting a week if it will work at all because at that temp things should be fine...I think I see a coffee filter inside too but I don't like using them myself they seem to cause trouble. Where are you getting your mix your going to use ?

Yes, there are coffee filters in the muck.

I did buy a culture of Timberline melanogaster a few days ago from a pet shop "just in case" and they are nothing like the ones I bought. There is no slime, no smell, no fungus and there are live flies and larvae.

If I can, I would like to salvage these, but I think I am running out of time. The earliest my chameleon eggs will hatch is mid July but more likely in August.

Do pet shops sell Hydei?

I bought Repashy fruit fly food and have wide mouthed mason jars to start getting a rotation cultures going.

I am really bothered by the mold. What should I do about it? Should I scrape off the mold and take that culture without the coffee filters out of the original cup and put it into a fresh jar with fresh food and hope?

I expected to have received containers with fruit flies in all stages of life like the ones I see in the pet stores.

These fruit flies are getting really, really expensive and I only have one jar that seems alive--the fifth culture I bought from the pet shop.
I think keeping rotating cultures of fruit flies going takes some practice and I'm running out of time. I'm starting to feel a bit of panic setting in.

I would really appreciate any help you can give me. The vendor is saying everything is normal and it typically takes the Hydei longer to appear than the Melanogaster. Maybe she is right. If any are alive, I still have time to get the few into a big enough colony to feed 12 baby quads. Today I'll go through each culture to see if anything is alive. Yesterday everything just dissolved into a pile of goo if I lightly touched it. I'm sure there is so much bacteria from rotting bodies of larvae that anything that wasn't dead soon will be. Plus the mold.

 

[Chase]

Honestly I would probably throw the culture out. The mold is something you really don't want so throwing it away would be your best bet. I would read the terms from the vendor, because I got screwed over by a vendor (not saying who), and they told me since the temp in the truck was too hot that I was basically was SOL. It kind of sucks because I'm in Florida, so yea the trucks are going to be over 85 pretty much most of the year.

Petco sells fruit flies, I'm just unsure of the species. If I were you I would just try to get some more. 2 months out is a lot of time to get cultures going. You could take one and turn it into 10 in a matter of a few weeks.

Good luck!
Chase

 

[jajeanpierre]

Thanks Chase. I'll contact the vendor today.

Can I feed baby quads on just melanogaster? I think that is the only flies I can get locally and I am terrified to have more shipped. When these were shipped, we had that rainy weather every day, so they did not overheat on my end. We have nice clear sunny weather so it will be up into the 90s every day.

I have a bean beetles as well. I also have stick bugs that seem to be regularly hatching out babies although I am not sure if I can count on them.

 

[GCash]

Thanks Chase. I'll contact the vendor today.

Can I feed baby quads on just melanogaster? I think that is the only flies I can get locally and I am terrified to have more shipped. When these were shipped, we had that rainy weather every day, so they dud bit overheat on my end. We have nice clear sunny weather so it will be up into the 90s every day.

I have a bean beetles as well. I also have stick bugs that seem to be regularly hatching out babies although I am not sure if I can count on them.

I keep both species going. Hydei are slower and the melanogaster fill in nicely if the others are lagging behind a little. Melanogasters boom fast.

 

[Chase]

Also the Melanogaster are half the size. I would keep both going just in case you run out of the other. The hydei take 3 weeks whereas Melanogaster take two (GCash hit that point)

Bean beetles are great. I would get a fair amount of those going, and when the weather cools off a little try again with the hydei cultures so you can get them going

Chase

 

[jajeanpierre]

Also the Melanogaster are half the size. I would keep both going just in case you run out of the other. The hydei take 3 weeks whereas Melanogaster take two (GCash hit that point)

Bean beetles are great. I would get a fair amount of those going, and when the weather cools off a little try again with the hydei cultures so you can get them going

Chase

The weather isn't going to cool off--I'm in south-central Texas. I'm going to try to get my local reptile store to order me some hydei.

Do others have trouble with them surviving shipping in the summer?

 

[jajeanpierre]

My own version of Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" skit is over.

The vendor will not refund my money. The vendor takes zero responsibility for shipping when temps were in the 90s on her end. Somehow she expected me to know that although there is no address and no weather forecast on her web site.

She takes no responsibility for the mold in the culture.

She said I should have read the fine print on her guaranteed live, except there is no guaranteed live delivery no matter how you ship. It is always at her "disgression" on whether she will honor her live non-guarantee. (I suspect she meant discretion as there is no such word as disgression in English.)

I paid $9.95 a cup for dead fruit flies and mold, twice the price of Josh's Frogs fruit flies. These were not producing cultures--there was no suggestion on the web site that it would take several weeks before I would have any fruit flies to feed IF they had arrived alive.

When I pay double the price for a product, I expect better service and a better product. I certainly expect her to make sure it had every chance to come to me alive. In this case, the vendor expects me to simply lose $50 while she makes a profit knowingly sending cultures in temperatures that will be guaranteed to kill them. At no time did she tell me there was a temperature problem. How was I ever to know?

Can I post the name of the supplier? Normally, I do not post negative reviews about a company, especially a small business, but the extremely poor service and poor product I received is beyond the pale. I gave her every opportunity to make it right. I would never recommend anyone use this company.

And, yes, she is a site sponsor. Being a site sponsor is no guarantee of ethical service.