Fruit Fly recipes and ingredients - Make your own!

[joneill809]

I began experimenting after your comment Phil on using less media and found the drop was good for my melanogaster cultures. I've dropped to 1/4 cup of dry media per melanogaster culture, but I maintained 1/2 cup for hydei. I keep melano cultures for 4 to 5 weeks and hydei for 6 to 8 weeks, so these amounts seem to get me through those periods. That would drop my estimate to ~$0.14 per melanogaster culture and leave the ~$0.27 per hydei as is, not including the cost of the cup, lid and coffee filters.

I'm still not using Methylparaben, but that's simply because I'm lazy and I can get all the stuff I am currently using at the grocery store and GNC next door...

The problem I struggle with the most is keeping the culture moisture content consistent over the course of the year as the weather changes. I stopped measuring water content and started "eyeballing" it to get the right consistency. The indoor RH moves from 50% in the summer to 30% in the winter. I'm guessing that has an impact...

[Philsuma]

Yeah it's damn near impossible to measure and predict the change of year temps and humidity and what effect it will have bla bla.

you're using hot water right ? I find that hot water is essential.

[joneill809]

Yeah - rolling boil... I seem to have the best luck by mixing until I get the right consistency, then I add a little more water on top of the culture so it stays wet while it cools off. By the time it's cooled, most of the extra water is absorbed, but for some reason that little extra bit after mixing helps my cultures a lot. I also keep the lids on while cooling to help retain moisture.

[Philsuma]

exactly how I do.

[BcsTx]

So mine is about twice the cost of your figure Phil, at $0.27 per culture. I'm sure it's my cost on brewers yeast - a 1 pound jar is $12 which seemed steep, but Amazon and the local health food places have about the same price. Any leads on less expensive sources? Overall it's still a decent deal when you figure in the added cost of shipping media. At 6 cultures per week for me, that is $1.60 per week and $83 per year.

FYI:
Josh sells a 5 pound bag of brewer's yeast for 14.99

[Philsuma]

Make yer own, now.

[blocker institute]

When mixing your cultures, I recommend a wisk type beater on a battery operated drill to help save forearms and speed the process up significantly. For those tool challenged , wear safety glasses and get your parents permission.

[Manzanitadude]

When mixing your cultures, I recommend a wisk type beater on a battery operated drill to help save forearms and speed the process up significantly. For those tool challenged , wear safety glasses and get your parents permission.

I have achieved similar results with allowing my 2 year old and 4 year old help stir the mixture.

[Philsuma]

Save a ton of $$. Make your own or at least 'cut' existing commercial mixes with store bought ingredients.