How Fungus & Mold Affect Fruit Fly Cultures

"Hi my name is Richard Revis I'm co-owner of Black Jungle Terrarium Supply and on behalf of expertvillage.com we are discussing the proper methods to culture fruit flies. At this point we have set up a culture and now I want to discuss some of the problems and pit falls that can effect cultures. One of the most common things that can effect them is mold and fungus. Mold and fungus are mostly a problem with home made formulas. Many prepare commercial mixes have mold inhibitors in them although depending on the exact formula they may or may not be able to prevent all molds and fungus. Especially depending on what part of the country you live in and in the time of year. Topically moist humid conditions has help promote molds or as in warm dry conditions will help prevent them. Using a good quality media goes a long way in preventing molds and fungus. One of the most classic systems of the mold or fungi problem is a either a black or white furry appearance that seems to grow on the surface of the culture media. There are certain ingredients that you can add to a home made formula to help prevent this things from happening. One of the simple ones is actually adding vinegar to a rate of 20% to the water that you use to set up the culture to help prevent it. But again one of the best ways to prevent it is just using a high quality commercial mix. Fungus typically is more of a white color where the mold is more of the black. Additionally bacteria can also effect the cultures and that takes on more of a yellow slimy appearance. None of these should be confuse with a old culture which typically would darken with age. In this example here this culture is approximately a month and half old after it was set up. The media is pretty much all used up, it is dark in color, but there is still lots of viable flies inside that are still perfectly suitable for use for food. If your culture do suffer infection from there molds, bacteria, or fungus you divinely don't want to use them for starting new cultures as it simply just starts the new culture off on a bad foot. It basically starts the culture on the wrong foot and it would promote the continuation of the mold and fungus growing in the new culture."