Pesky Fruit Flies

We have pesky fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), lots of them. The Genus name Drosophila translates to "lover of dew" which is definitly reflective of their habitat requirements- they need moisture. They also need warmer temperatures to survive and reproduce. I never knew they could thrive inside all through the year outside of a Genetics lab until I worked at Tanglewood. Why do we have a fruit fly problem? Because we have rotting food here and there. Not because we are gross, unsanitary people, but because we have animals that we feed rotting vegetation to, namely hissing cockroaches and giant millipedes (animals that are decomposers). Rotting food is a favorite of the fruit fly since it is moist and, well, food.

I am quite familiar with fruit flies, I have looked at many of them really close up, and I have delved into their "private lives" as has anyone who has taken Genetics in college. I spent some time crossing several varieties of fruit flies (wild type with mutant wingless, dumpys, others I don't remember). We had to feed them special fruit fly food. I'm not sure what it was made of, but it looked like instant potato flakes until you added water, then it turned blue and semi-solid. It had a unique smell that I still haven't quite forgotten. Fly Nap, the substance used to knock out the flies (but hopefully not kill them) while you were moving them or observing them under the microscope, also has a unique smell, but I shouldn't know that. Never sniff Fly Nap...

We had to use virgin females in our mating experiments. Making sure a fruit fly is a virgin isn't easy and you don't have much time to capture virgins. You basically had to know their life cycle and be hanging around the genetics lab when you estimated they might hatch out (which could be at 2am), and get them before they mate since they are ready to mate 12 hours from when they hatch. Getting them as soon as you can after they hatch gives your experiments a better chance of being accurate.

I used to feel sorry for the flies we used in our genetic experiments. We were supposed to "dispose of" them in a killing jar when we were done with them. I always let mine free in a rogue "save the animals" type mission that took place when the professor wasn't around (sorry Dr. Kline). Now I am kind of regretting adding to the fruit fly population. We spend quite a bit of time here figuring out how to get rid of them. The best way we've found is to cut a plastic pop bottle, put liquid and/or a banana in the bottom, invert the top and place it into the bottom to make a funnel. You tape the sides and place the trap where the fruit flies are. They go to the banana/liquid (which can be cider vinegar, fruit juice) and get caught in the funnel and die. Maybe they die happy because they were eating? That is what I tell myself anyways, after all I saved hundreds of them back in the 90's, so can't be considered a real hater of the fruit fly, can I?