Can beer in a beaker catch loose Drosophila?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dorothy Baum
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
To effectively catch loose Drosophila, various baiting methods can be employed. One popular technique involves using beer in a beaker, which attracts the flies and leads to their drowning. Another effective bait is a mixture of yeast, water, and banana. For larger infestations, placing flypaper near the trap can help, although caution is advised to avoid getting hair stuck. In cases of significant fly escapes, creating a passive trap from a plastic bottle by cutting the top off, inverting it, and sealing the edges can be useful. This trap can be baited with fruit juice or bits of fruit. Notably, Drosophila are particularly attracted to Scotch, as experienced by a bartender who faced challenges with flies infiltrating liquor bottles. Ultimately, maintaining proper sealing on bottles is crucial to prevent infestations.
Dorothy Baum
I remember somewhere a trick to catch loose Drosophila.
It might have been beer in a beaker which they drink
and then drown? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
We used to do this, but with yeast + water + banana.

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef621.asp

If you have a major escape on your hands, putting up flypaper near the jar helps, just don't get your hair stuck in it like I did... Major escapes usually mean having to spray. Which is often a no-no in labs.
 
Cut the top off a plastic water/soda bottle, invert it in the body of the bottle, and tape up the edges. Now you have a passive fly-trap that you can bait with fruit juice, bits of fruit, etc.
 
I can tell you from personal experience that there's nothing the little sots love more than Scotch. While I was tending bar, we could get away with putting a Saran Wrap cover over the limes and lemons, and the things like banana liquer were alright with the speed-spouts in. The Scotch bottles had so many fruit-flies in them that I had to pour them through coffee filters into second bottles. Then I put rubber caps over the spouts, thinking that it'd be okay. Nope... the bastards were so determined that they crawled in through the vent holes. I finally had to give up and put the screw-caps back on.
 
Back
Top