I never sterilize or cook anything when I do fruit flies. It would be
too much work and for me isn't worth the effort. There are lots of
ways to do fruit flies. People add stuff and take steps that are not
necessary. They add all kinds of work to try to save a buck or two.
Some of the home made recipes cost as much as the professional recipes.
For me using a professionally prepared recipe that does not require
heating works best. Studies have shown that the best way to boost
vitamins or nutrients in food item insects is by dusting not gut
loading.
Michael Shrom
On Monday, May 5, 2003
Banana soup
Fruit fly medium formula
5 pounds of ripe (turning brown) bananas
2 cups dried nutritional yeast
2 cups vinegar
Thoroughly wash bananas
Slice bananas with skins into ½ inch sections and beets into ½ inch cubes
Boil slowly with vinegar till tender
Turn off heat blend till smooth with nutritional yeast and vitamins
Pour into sterilized jars (about two fingers deep)
When cool add live yeast and flies.
Tracy Hicks
Raising Fruit Flies", Dr. Floyd Waddle
Reptiles Magazine, February 1996, pp. 4, 6
baker's yeast
brewer's yeast
instant potato flakes
tegosept (methylparaben)
To prepare dry culture media, mix 1 part brewer's to 10 parts instant potato flakes by weight. When ready for use, mix 4 grams of the mold inhibitor, tegosept (methylparaben), to 1 gallon of hot water. Let cool and add an equal amount of water to the dry culture media (by volume). When the mixture solidifies, add a couple of granules of baker's yeast to the surface and add fruit flies. Calcium proprionate may be used as a substitute for tegosept.
The Modified Cornell University Method -
INGREDIENTS AND PREPARATION - A mail scale is great for accurately weighing out small quantities.
Tap water - 1 quart.
Agar - 1/4 ounce. Agar is a plant extract that will make your mixture form a firm gel when it cools. (You can get it at Carolina Biological Supply Co or other scientific supply houses.)
Unsulphured molasses - 4 1/2 liquid ounces (sold in super markets).
Cornmeal - 2 ounces (sold in super markets).
Brewer’s yeast - 1/2 ounce. (sold in super markets in 1/4-ounce packets.)
Mold inhibitor - 1/2 liquid ounce. You make this by mixing 1.7 ounces of methyl paraben to a pint of 95% ethanol, which is ethyl alcohol. (Get your methyl paraben at Carolina Biological Supply Co or other scientific supply houses and your ethanol at the drug store. Be sure you purchase the right kind of alcohol: there are more than one kind. You can substitute an alcoholic beverage called Everclear from your local liquor shop for the drugstore ethanol.)
Bring the water just to a boil and immediately stir the agar into it. Then add the molasses and stir again. Now, bring the mixture to a full boil stirring it occasionally. While it boils stir in the cornmeal and yeast and keep it all boiling for a few minutes. Then lower the temperature a bit and let it all cook another few minutes. Stir occasionally.
While the mixture is cooking, wash and sterilize your bottles and a microwave-safe kitchen funnel. I like to do this by simply placing them in a microwave oven for a minute or two. If your cotton stoppers are not already sterilized (check the information on the cotton container), put these in the microwave, too. Take a tissue like the ones you use to blow your nose and a paper towel that you have cut into five roughly equal pieces and sterilize them, too. Wash and rinse your hands thoroughly before you remove these items from the microwave. Place all the items on a very clean counter surface.
Now take the cooked mixture off the stove and let it cool for about two minutes. Then add the mold inhibitor slowly (careful it might spatter when it hits the mixture) and thoroughly stir it in along with any vitamins you are adding. Now, pour the mixture through the funnel and into the bottles, filling them up to only about an inch-and-a-half from bottom.
Next, fold the paper-towel pieces a few times the long way and, using a long thin object like a chop stick, imbed one end of each piece into the material in each bottle so that the paper sticks roughly straight up within the bottle. Finally, place a cotton stopper on each bottle.
When the bottles have cooled to room temperature, the material at bottom should be a rubbery gel. If it is too liquidy, push a piece or two of the tissue into it and just leave them imbedded in it to sop up the excess moisture and provide firmer footing for your flies. Cover and refrigerate the five bottles you are not going to use right away. First put them in plastic bags to avoid their drying out.
Mike Reed