Fruit fly culture absolutely coated in larva and killed all the adults within 12 hours. Pictures attached

[Flickmycham]

So last night I checked one of my fruit fly cultures and it was normal, all the adults were alive with a good amount of larva on the sides of the jar. This afternoon (12 hours later) I look at the jar and I can’t even barely see into it, it’s covered I mean COVERED in larva. And all the adults are dead at the bottom of the jar?? There’s even larva on the bottom of jar on top of the dead adults. Why?? How?? Any advice on how to proceed with this culture? Help lol

 

[Flickmycham]

Just remembered that last night I seen the coffee filter I had in there for them had sunk down into the culture so as a temporary fix I put those white plastic fencing sort of things that came from a store bought culture in there for them. There was still a bit of the coffee filter available to them at that point, but as you can see this morning when I looked the coffee filter was completely gone and a million more larva

 

[CasqueAbove]

I know they will die off at 80 degrees. Did you have material for them to climb on ? they usualy use excelsior or you can use coffee filters.
So either over heating or nothing to climb on and getting stuck, though I don't know if they need stuff to climb on. Last heat wave Iost my cultures.

 

[Flickmycham]

I know they will die off at 80 degrees. Did you have material for them to climb on ? they usualy use excelsior or you can use coffee filters.
So either over heating or nothing to climb on and getting stuck, though I don't know if they need stuff to climb on. Last heat wave Iost my cultures.

I originally had a coffee filter in there but noticed yesterday it had sunk down into the culture so as a temporary fix I put those white plastic fencing sort of things that came from a store-bought culture in there. There was still a bit of the coffee filter available to them at that point, but this morning when I looked the coffee filter was completely gone and a million more larva. It is about 70 degrees for them. Do they usually spawn that quick?? And would you suggest I keep the culture for the larva to grow and make new flies?

 

[CasqueAbove]

I originally had a coffee filter in there but noticed yesterday it had sunk down into the culture so as a temporary fix I put those white plastic fencing sort of things that came from a store-bought culture in there. There was still a bit of the coffee filter available to them at that point, but this morning when I looked the coffee filter was completely gone and a million more larva. It is about 70 degrees for them. Do they usually spawn that quick?? And would you suggest I keep the culture for the larva to grow and make new flies?

Yes they breed that fast. Yes keep the larva you will have a bunch of new fruit flies soon. Usually the adults don't all die off like that. They keep laying eggs making more. The adults may have been old, but those larva should start to hatch soon.

 

[Andee]

Honestly fruit flies dont live long, so it depends on how old your flies were, also thats not that many flies. Keep your culture it looks prolific so it may just be in a weird part of its cycle. Dont keep it too warm or too cold too mucb heat create humidity, mold, and ages the flues faster. Too cold and they go into stasis and die.

 

[Flickmycham]

Honestly fruit flies dont live long, so it depends on how old your flies were, also thats not that many flies. Keep your culture it looks prolific so it may just be in a weird part of its cycle. Dont keep it too warm or too cold too mucb heat create humidity, mold, and ages the flues faster. Too cold and they go into stasis and die.

Thanks for the reply. The temperature and humidity is always under control so I don’t think it’s that. Maybe they were just old but it makes me wonder why they all died at the same time. Should I somehow get rid of the dead flies or are they fine to leave in there?

 

[Andee]

Fruit fly cultures CAN get overloaded but thats not enough larvae for a crash imo. Ive had far more as long as there is enough things for the flies to stand on and food they were fine. Ive never removed dead flies so i wouldnt >.>

 

[Flickmycham]

Fruit fly cultures CAN get overloaded but thats not enough larvae for a crash imo. Ive had far more as long as there is enough things for the flies to stand on and food they were fine. Ive never removed dead flies so i wouldnt >.>

Yeah I thought it was weird they all died too as it doesn’t seem to have crashed since the larva is still flourishing? Not sure what qualifies as a crash though! Can’t imagine what your culture looked like with even more larvae larva were even crawling out the small pinholes I poked in the lid! Any other ideas other than coffee filters for them to stand on?

 

[Andee]

Excelsior works, ive also used a light amount of fluffed hiawatha moss... but i think thats it.

 

[ponders]

They all died from not having anything to climb on and the culture must have been quite wet. You'll need excelsior in there or coffee filters that aren't wet for the adults and the larvae to pupate on. Otherwise they will attach to the lid and rim and you'll kill them when you open the top or they will cover up the ventilation holes and that's not a pretty smell!

 

[suprdude]

I've created hundreds of fruit fly cultures, and never had this happen

 

[Flickmycham]

I've created hundreds of fruit fly cultures, and never had this happen

Sorry for the late reply. I’m new to culturing insects and was quite freaked out when I seen just how many larva there is! They are covering the media at the bottom as well. I guess they really liked my media? Idk