richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) (11/12/88)
I'm having a problem with fruit flies. Apparantly they are a wonderfull food for tropical fish, so I set about recently trying to establish some sort of practical method of culturing them. What I have so far is: a large tupperware container in which I left about 3 dozen grapes. It's in an office at work where nobody will notice, inside a book case with glass doors. I put the grapes there about 3 - 4 weeks ago, and have been noticing a small increase in the number of fruit flies. I checked it today, and we seem to have quite a crop. Now, the problem is, how do I get them into an aquarium. My first thought was to try to train them. It didnt take long to figure out this wasn't working. Unruley buggers, fruit flies. My next attempt was to cover the tupperware bowl and place a jar next to it with a grape in it. Hopefully they would not be able to get back in the tupperware container and would all congregate in the jar, which I could quickly close. Once I have them in a jar, they're as good as dinner, as apparantly all you do is add a bit of water, shake the jar up, and pour it in an aquarium. Thus, you dont want a lot of grape goop in the jar. At any rate, they ignored the jar completely and all snuck back into the tupperware container. So, my questions: What is it they are attracted to ? There's an amyl acetate kind of smell coming from the grape slush. Is this what does it ? DO any of you peple raise fruit flies as part of your jobs ? Surely you have a better method than this. I've heard a bit about the wingless drosphilia, but I understand that there are two strains - a warm one and a cold one and the warm one regains it's wings above 70 F. Not much use. They CAN'T go in the fridge. I'm still in trouble about that little incident with the worms and the spanish rice. Which begs the question, how do they regain their wings ? Is this a mutation that ``fixes'' itself ? A prompts response would be most appreciated, as, judging from the number of pupae in and around the container, there are going to be a LOT of flies when I go into work monday. -- ``You must have an IQ of at least half a million'' -- Popeye richard@gryphon.CTS.COM {backbone...err, well connected site}!gryphon!richard
hes@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Henry Schaffer) (11/13/88)
First suggestion is that you visit someone who raises fruit flies (Drosophila.) There is much that is easier to see than to have described in writing. While raising the flies on mashed fermenting fruit can work, it is somewhat harder to handle than when solid media is used. The flies are attracted to the fermenting fruit - and the fermentation is particularly attractive. (to flies, that is.) I suggest that aspiration (by mouth) is a fairly efficient way of collecting them. Let me see if I can describe the apparatus - Take a small bottle (1/2 pint or less) with a sturdy top, e.g. a cork or rubber stopper. Pierce it with two holes to take glass tubing. At the outside of the bottle connect a length of rubber tubing to each glass tubing and then end with another length of glass tubing. One of these is perhaps 8" long and used to collect the flies, and the other is shorter, and you place it in your mouth and suck on it to collect flies. On the inside of the bottle side of the cork, the glass tubing going to the fly collecting end is long enough to reach close to the bottle bottom. The other tubing is shorter and its end is covered with cheese cloth (to keep flies and other stuff from going into your mouth.) (All glass tubing ends should be flame polished for safety reasons. Also the collecting end works better if it is cut at an angle.) Put the cork on the bottle, the mouth piece in your mouth, and the collecting end through a hole in the culture container top (which can normally be closed with a tuft of absorbent cotton) Then put the end of the glass tubing near a fly or group of flies and such sharply and "vacuum" them up. You end up with the flies in a dry clean bottle. (The bottle can also be a vial, and ones about the size of a shotgun shell - no smaller than 16 ga. :-) work well.) With solid food, the whole culture container can be inverted over an empty bottle and the two of them together tapped on a table, knocking the flies into the lower bottle. However, that is another topic. --henry schaffer
meo@stiatl.UUCP (Miles O'Neal) (11/14/88)
In article <8648@gryphon.COM> richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: >I'm having a problem with fruit flies. ... >A prompts response would be most appreciated, as, judging from the number >of pupae in and around the container, there are going to be a LOT of >flies when I go into work monday. Obviously you never heard about Ignorantzi Casserole's work with fruit flies. This exact experiment was performed exactly ONCE in all of recorded history, and resulted in: a wine smell that brought connoiseurs and lushes alike from over 50 Km away on a windy day, the only recorded 73 kg goldfish on record, and the world's worst recorded plague of fruit flies, which, fortunately for southern Italy, were blown across the Med into North Africa, where they turned the beautiful, lush "cradle of civilization" into the humongous desert it is today. Oh yeah, some of the flies mutated (evolved? devolved? were undivinely refashioned?) into very sick facsimiles (technology even then!) of men, who are alive even today in that corner of the world - the most prominent going under the human-names of Khadaffy and Arafart. *I'm* getting my family's tickets to Iceland RIGHT NOW! GOOD-BYE!
markk@iscuva.ISCS.COM (Mark Kimmerly) (11/15/88)
In article <8648@gryphon.COM> richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: > >I'm having a problem with fruit flies. > >Apparantly they are a wonderfull food for tropical fish, so I set >about recently trying to establish some sort of practical method >of culturing them. > >.... > > What is it they are attracted to ? I can't give you any scientific answers, but according to rumors, there's a woman at work here who is supposed to be able to attract flies just by uncrossing her legs. I don't know how she does it, maybe she just has a way with nature or something. If you want, I can find out who it is and send you a phone number or address. -- Markk (professional smart-ass)
markk@iscuva.ISCS.COM (Mark Kimmerly) (11/15/88)
A thousand pardons, please. I meant for the previous response to go only to talk.bizarre. Apologies if I offended anyone. (That's what I get for downing 5 cups of coffee before 10:00 am) -- Markk (professional smart-ass)
bgt@homxc.UUCP (B.TONGUE) (11/15/88)
-In article <1483@stiatl.UUCP>, meo@stiatl.UUCP (Miles O'Neal) writes: -> In article <8648@gryphon.COM> richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: -> >I'm having a problem with fruit flies. Just remember folks, Time flies like an arrow! Fruit flies like a banana! -- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% The Speaking Tongue, AT&T %% C Code. C Code Run. Run, Code, RUN! %% %% (..att!..)homxc!ela0!bgt %% PLEASE!!!! %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
jennifer@uokmax.UUCP (Moira K Nightfall) (11/16/88)
The Fly
- Karl Shapiro -
O hideous little bat, the size of snot,
With polyhedral eye and shabby clothes,
To populate the stinking cat you walk
The promontory of the dead man's nose,
Climb with the fine leg of a Duncan-Phyfe
The smoking mountains of my food
And in a comic mood
In mid-air take to bed a wife.
Riding and riding with your filth of hair
On gluey foot or wing, forever coy,
Hot from the compost and green sweet decay,
Sounding your buzzer like an urchin toy --
You dot all whiteness with diminutive stool,
In the tight belly of the dead
Burrow with hungry head
And inlay maggots like a jewel.
At your approach the great horse stomps and paws
Bringing the hurricane of his heavy tail;
Shod in disease you dare to kiss my hand
Which sweeps against you like an angry flail;
Still you return, return, trusting your wing
To draw you from the hunter's reach
That learns to kill to teach
Disorder to the tinier thing.
My peace is your disaster. For your death
Children like spiders cup their pretty hands
And wives resort to chemistry of war.
In fens of sticky paper and quicksands
You glue yourself to death. Where you are stuck
You struggle hideously and beg
You amputate your leg
Imbedded in the amber muck.
But I, a man, must swat you with my hate
Slap you across the air and crush your flight,
Must mangle with my shoe and smear your blood,
Expose your little guts pasty and white,
Knock your head sidewise like a drunkard's hat,
Pin your wings under like a crow's
Tear off your flimsy clothes
And beat you as one beats a rat.
Then like Gargantua I stride among
The corpses strewn like raisins in the dust,
The broken bodies of the narrow dead
That catch the throat with fingers of disgust
I sweep. One gyrates like a top and falls
And stunned, stone blind, and deaf
Buzzes its frightful F
And dies between three cannibals.
-----
--
Moira Nightfall
sun!texsun\ | FLASH! Intelligence of mankind decreasing.
>!uokmax!jennifer | Details at ... uh, when the little hand is
att!occrsh/ | on the ....
greg@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Gregory Nowak) (11/21/88)
In article <8648@gryphon.COM> richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: }I'm having a problem with fruit flies. Is this related to any other problems you may hav-- never mind. }Apparantly they are a wonderfull food for tropical fish, so I set }about recently trying to establish some sort of practical method }of culturing them. Start slow, and not too heavy -- the Brandenburgs, maybe a little Restoration comedy, Shelley, etc. Stay out of the 20th century untill you consult winslow. }What I have so far is: a large tupperware container in which I left }about 3 dozen grapes. It's in an office at work where nobody will }notice, inside a book case with glass doors. It's a start, at least. }I put the grapes there about 3 - 4 weeks ago, and have been noticing }a small increase in the number of fruit flies. }I checked it today, and we seem to have quite a crop. GOOD! With luck they can all share the same seat at the concerts. }Once I have them in a jar, they're as good as dinner, as apparantly }all you do is add a bit of water, shake the jar up, and pour it in }an aquarium. Thus, you dont want a lot of grape goop in the jar. }At any rate, they ignored the jar completely and all snuck back into }the tupperware container. They'll congregate on bananas or banana peel. Why can't you just put water in the tupperware? Am I missing something? } What is it they are attracted to ? There's an amyl acetate } kind of smell coming from the grape slush. Is this what does } it ? You just have a nice personality. You eed them, you take them out, hy shouldn't they be attracted to you? } DO any of you peple raise fruit flies as part of your jobs ? [Note how Richard has subtly shifted his claim; we're now to believe that he's being paid by Trailing Edge to raise flies.] } Surely you have a better method than this. That's PROPRIETARY INFORMATION, buddy! } I've heard a bit about the wingless drosphilia, but I understand } that there are two strains - a warm one and a cold one and } the warm one regains it's wings above 70 F. Not much use. } They CAN'T go in the fridge. I'm still in trouble about that } little incident with the worms and the spanish rice. They're not supposed to get that big -- if the mealworms are eating your leftovers, contact CDC. }A prompts response would be most appreciated, as, judging from the number }of pupae in and around the container, there are going to be a LOT of }flies when I go into work monday. And they'll be MAD AS HELL. -- rutgers!phoenix.princeton.edu!greg Gregory A Nowak/Phoenix Gang/Princeton NJ "Take 2*3*5*7*11*13. It's divisible by 59." --Matt Crawford