You will receive:

(1) Melanogaster Starter Fruit Fly Culture - 100+ Fruit Flies!  

Plus Bonus Fruit Fly Kit

• 1 - 32 oz plastic container with vented lid.
•  Fruit Fly Media (Our special formula)
•  Baker's Yeast
•  Excelsior for 1- 32 oz culture.
• Instructions on how to start your new culture

Each culture is made with OUR PROVEN FRUIT FLY MEDIA containing all the vitamins, minerals, and color enhancers that your pets need to thrive.  These tiny brown flies, while smaller when compared with D. Hydei reproduce much quicker; maggots form about 4 days after the freshly made culture and flies begin to hatch about 8-14 days (10 days being average) from arrival.  D.

 .                                         Click here for the Fruit Fly Care Sheet

Fun Facts about the Drosophilia Melanogaster Fruit Fly

•  Reaches 1/16” fully grown
•  Flightless but can easily climb smooth surfaces
•  Smaller than D. Hydei (Hydei being 1/8”)
•  Melanogaster fruit flies culture in about 14 days
•  Maggots start appearing in about 4 days after re-culturing
•  Eggs start hatching in about 8-14 days.
•  The culture is less likely to mold or crash
•  More forgiving to low humidity or incorrect temperatures. 
•  Most cultures will have 2-3 booms, within 5-7 days between each one.  
•  Each culture should produce 300+ fruit flies each time you re-culture it.

Your Wingless Fruit Fly Starter Cultures, containing  Drosophila melanogaster  will be 2-6 days old when you receive them.  Melanogaster fruit flys are smaller than D. Hydei just reaching 1/16" fully grown. 

Melanogaster are wingless (and obviously flightless), but can climb smooth surfaces.  These flies are easy to raise and culture.  For optimal production Fruit Fly Cultures should be kept around 70-76F.

When your package arrives, the best thing to do is find a shelf in your house you can put your cultures on where they won't be bothered for a few days.  

Fresh cultures take several days before they start producing hundreds of flies.  You don't want to feed off the flies that initially come in the culture!  If you do so, the culture may fail to produce more flies...be patient and wait for a sudden increase in fly production. 

You can feed D. melanogaster fruit flies to the following...

• Small surface-feeding fish
• Mid-water feeding fish
• Frogs, salamanders and newts 
• Insect-eating reptiles
• Insect-eating plants
• Many species of invertebrates including mantids and scorpions