At the Fruit Fly Shop, our aim is to provide you with the highest quality product at
a reasonable price while providing detailed information on the care and background
of the creatures we offer. On this page, we introduce you to the general background
of the flightless Drosophila Hydei fruit fly and wingless Drosophila Melanogaster fruit fly. You'll also find out about our
flies and what makes them superior to others.
Flightless fruit flies have been genetically altered so that they cannot fly,
so you don't need to worry about escaped flies buzzing around your head or about
your pet's inability to catch flying flies.
They are completely flightless and harmless, and these fruit flies are USDA approved.
drosophila Melanogaster
drosophila Hydei
Drosophila Melanogaster does not have wings. This species is the smaller of the two
we offer, coming in at 1/16th of an inch. It is similar in appearance and mobility to
an ant.
Drosophila Hydei has wings, but its muscles are too weak to support flight.
This species is about 1/8'', larger than the d. melanogaster. It looks similar to a
house fly, but much smaller and again, it cannot fly. Because of their inability to
fly, these creatures make a perfect live feeder for a huge variety of animals.
What To Expect From Our Fly Cultures
At The Fruit Fly Shop, you'll find both Flightless Drosophila Hydei and Wingless Drosophila Melanogaster Fruit Flies available to purchase.
Please Click Here to enter our store. We offer some of the
most vigorous flies available and our colonies are always freshly hatched when they are shipped
to you. You'll also be amazed at the high production rate of our fruit fly feeding media.
You'll have generations of hundreds upon hundreds of flies!
The Fruit Fly Shop offers flightless or wingless fruit flies that are high in protein and an excellent feeder for a huge variety of small and baby animals, including fish, reptiles, birds, spiders, mantis and amphibians. They are very useful and healthy as feeders for aquarium fish, which are particularly attracted by the fluttering flies. Surface feeding live bearers and bettas eat the flies voraciously.
Fruit flies are a perfect food for dart frogs, tree frogs, chameleons, mantids, anoles, salamanders, newts, many kinds of lizards, spiders, scorpions and more!
Our flies are also ideal for biological study and experimentation. Their clean
genetic line is something you may not find elsewhere.
As you can see, here at The Fruit Fly Shop we offer a variety of options which we have tried to make
easy-to-understand by creating the above chart for you.
Please see our STORE FRONT for more detailed information on each of the above items.
The Advantages of Feeding Your Animals Fruit Flies
"I Love Fruit Flies!"
Yeh....hee...whoo...haa....wheee!!!!!
Nutrition: fruit flies are very nutritious.
Most animals eagerly chow down the fruit flies, so they must
be very tasty and appealing.
Fruit flies often draw a feeding response in finicky
eaters or animals that are on a hunger strike. Maybe this is
because they are so delicious and perhaps also because fruit flies move around vigorously,
which draws the attention of herps and entices them to eat.
Fruit flies are a cinch to care for. You don't need to feed them.
They'll be fine in the container they are shipped in at 60-90°.
And, the fruit flies do not need to be refrigerated.
Fruit flies offered with other live feeders will give your pet
the needed variety they require in their diet and therefore maximize your
animal's good health. They can also be fed as a staple if dusted.
Fruit flies don't make any racket like some annoying live feeders.
Two Types / Sizes To Choose From
D. Melanogaster - About 1/16 inch
Drosophila Melanogaster flightless fruit flies are an ideal size for newborn praying mantis, dart frogs, baby reptiles and amphibians,
spiderlings, aquarium fish, carnivorous plants and lots more.
D. Hydei - About 1/8 inch
Drosophila Hydei wingless fruit flies are most excellent for praying mantis, skinks, chameleons, anoles, turtles, frogs, young
bearded dragons and rankins dragons, birds, larger tropical fish and many more.
Immediately upon receipt, pour about 50 flies into your feeding culture.
It will take about 7-10 days for the melanogaster and 14 days for hydei to
begin producing tons of new flies.
Keep your culture at a comfortable room temperature. Remember, the colder it is, the slower
the production of flies will be. If you require fewer flies, you may want to try to keep the
culture at a cooler temperature. About 85 ° F is ideal for maximum fly production. Do
not let the temperature fall below about 60 - 65 ° F. The culture will continue to produce
new flies for 4-6 weeks. Maximum production occurs during the first few weeks and slows down from there.
Common sense is key in keeping the culture. Do not put the culture in the sun. Do not expose it
to fumes of any kind, including cigarette smoke. The culture really doesn't require any care, except for perhaps
misting once in awhile.
Do not use all the flies- Keep a few dozen in the culture at all times to insure continuous production.
Also, do not let too many flies develop- use them regularly. Too many flies will rapidly consume the medium
and dead ones will begin to pollute the medium.
Be careful to keep the lid secure and watch out for flying fruit flies when you are
working with an open culture!!! Your culture will be pretty much be ruined if it becomes
a breeding ground for flying flies along with the lovely non-flying ones.
Flightless Fruit Fly Video
Baby praying mantis eating a fruit fly
Further Reading
Wikipedia - One of our favorite places to gather information
is the all-encompassing Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Our little flying friends are no exception.
WikiHow - What Wikipedia is to information, WikiHow is to doing.
Here is a wonderful article about obtaining Fruit Flies, both flying and non-flying.
Animal Diversity Web - From the University of Michigan,
presenting an outstanding article on Drosophila melanogaster, which coincidentally, we have for sale..
Please Contact Us if you have any questions about our flightless fruit flies or anything at all.
Flightless Fruit Fly Video
