when i dust my fruit flys i find it almost impossible to keep some from escaping. Any tips?? :?:
An empty 32 oz container, like you would use to make fly cultures, and constant tapping. Sometimes I use a plastic spoon to control the distribution of the flies into the tank and prevent dusting my plants with supplements.
The easiest way to keep flys in the container is to put you calcium or vitamin powder in container first then add the flys. When they get the powder on their feet they have a hard time climbing out of the container. As long as the feeding container is clean they stay at the bottlom. If some seem to be climbing out i give them a swirl in the supplement and make sure they are coated.
Bob
The best way that I have found to dust fruit flies is to take a wide mouth mason jar, and place a small amount of vitamin dust in the bottom. I keep my cultures in narrow mouth mason jars, which allows me to tap them into the jar with the dust without loosing many. Shake them up a bit to get the dust on them and then sift them out over an empty jar using a fine screen flour sifter. If you keep tapping the sifter, they will be unable to hop out, the dust will fall through and you can then tap the sifter over the tank to drop them in. The sifter works wonderfully and I never loose more than a couple, you just have to be quick about getting the culture lid back on and such. If you are using mason jars for the culture, use the narrow mouth ones for easier pouring with a coffee filter over top held in place with the ring.
