# Fruit Flies and Roach Colonies



## BurrowDweller (Oct 9, 2007)

Hey all, have started having a problem with fruuit flies getting into my roach bins. Have never had this problem before and don't really know why I am having it now. The roaches eat all their food quickly so unless the flies are living off the frass I don't know what they are eating. I am positive they are Drosophila and not Phorid flies. Any suggestions? My wife doesn't mind the roaches, but she really gets annoyed by the fruit flies!
Thanks,
Anthony


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## Rochelle (Oct 9, 2007)

Fruit flies are easy!  Just dry out your tank for several days. Clean out the frass; but keep the babies fed well (they eat the frass)...get rid of any forgotten fruits/veggies in your house. (potatoes, bananas on top of the fridge, etc..) Make sure dishes are washed every night...garbage goes outside, no wet cat/dog food in house, etc...
They should dwindle and go away if you get rid of their moisture/food supply...
I've been having a persistent issue with the more difficult Phorids, just lately. I WISH they were fruit flies....:evil: 
Double check the I.D's..just to be sure. K?


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## Cocoa-Jin (Oct 16, 2007)

I have a small colony of Lobsters.  I feed them Organic Baby Bok Choy and this dried and spun discs of natural cat food made of pheansant.  That stuff is nice and light in structure, devoid of all moisture and doesnt rot.

I mist the colony walls periodically to provide some humidity, but there is tons of mositure in Bok Choy, which i suspect aids in humidity and provides sufficient moisture without attracting fruit flies...and it seems to resist mold and fouling, dries to a consistency of old tree leaves

I only add fruit once a week, usually apple slices, but I tried gold ball sized cherry tomatoes this weekend.  I kept the tomatoes whole so they wouldnt attract too many fruit flies and i cut small slits in the skin.  The slits made nice a clean locations for roaches of all sizes to get to the sweet sticky goodness without making a mess.

When I took out the tomato the next morning, they had eaten nice, clean divets into all 4 slits with no mess, so once the tomato was gone their were no remnants to attract fruit flies.

End result, nice and clean colony...no flies, no fuss.


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## Choobaine (Oct 17, 2007)

yeah I have thee same problem with fruit flies in my morio and tenibrio tanks, dunno why, the whole house has this problem. I just tip them outside if they gather, they aren't coming from the tanks, just drawn to them. I might invest in some little mantids to enjoy the available feast. It's quite something when all the lights are off apart from my monitor to watch the black cloud circling me.


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## Rochelle (Oct 19, 2007)

I got a piece of advice this past week that I'm going to try out. 
Cellar Spiders!
They supposedly web up the upper corners of the tanks and eat up all the devil-flies!  Mwahahahahaha! 
Will post results!


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## Cocoa-Jin (Oct 19, 2007)

maybe loose a few nymphs too?...but still likly worth it.


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## Vfox (Oct 21, 2007)

At work we get fruit flies in the tomatoes, apples, and candied apples a lot. The only way to get rid of them is to remove any rotting fruit, and within days they are gone. You can also try a cold snap if you a heater on the tank, and the ambient room temp is low. I've never seen them thrive in less than room temp, around 72ºF. 

Not sure how affective this would be with fruit flies, but you can also try baited fly strips, they love caramel, so probably sugar in general, so mix some sugar water up, open a fly strip and mist the strip with sugar water to attract them moreso than the strip alone. Make sure you don't do it too much though, it will remove some of the stickiness.


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## Louise E. Rothstein (Oct 22, 2007)

I have noticed that both roaches and crickets will eat fruitfly pupae.
However,I find that fruitflies will BREED in (moist) dead crickets.
Despite their name,they are not strict vegetarians.
Mine become "DeadBugflies,"  "Meatflies,"  or "General DiscardsFlies" 
whenever I offer them the opportunity to do so.

My omnivorous "fruit" flies are specimens of Drosophila hydei.
I don't know whether D. melanogaster would be as omnivorous.

Their pupae seem to be highly nutritious.
I find that they can be frozen for greater convenience.
Since frozen pupae may stick together I recommend separating
them into "dinner portions" BEFORE you freeze them.

Bon (bug!!!) appetit!!!


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