Viable alternative to excelsior for fruit fly cultures

[WhiteMoss]

So I've been doing some searching for alternatives to excelsior for rearing fruit flies. I've read of people using the packing material that is similar to excelsior with success, however that too seems to be hard to find in my area and even on Amazon (at least that will deliver to me).

I think I have finally found that alternative. Simple brown twine. It's cheap, comes in lengthy rolls, easy to find, and best yet, it's biodegradable!
I cut it into about 1 foot lengths, and pull the strands apart and pull on them so that they are all frayed giving more volume to them. It makes a bit of mess, but for the cost, it's a mess I have no issue cleaning lol.

 

[jbooth]

The packaging material is excelsior. The people selling us excelsior are buying it as bulk as they can as packaging material, and turning around and selling it at 100x the cost for fruit flies. I'm not sure how much I got for like $50 or $60, but it's a lot. Twine looks fine too.