Flightless Fruit Flies


Fruit fly cultures: they're the gift that keeps on giving. Our fruit fly cultures will continue to produce flies for up to five weeks, so amphibians, reptiles, and fish that require smaller prey, will have plenty of flies. Each culture is shipped with approximately 50 to 100 adult flies in the vial, so usage can begin immediately.

Timberline fruitflies are completely flightless – they will crawl around and make things interesting for pets, but they absolutely will not swarm around pet enclosures, homes, or pet stores. Just pop the top on the culture, shake some out, and watch pets enjoy some plump, flightless fruit flies.

We offer Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila hydei – melanogaster are about the size of a pinhead cricket, while hydei are about 1/8" in size. Hydei are the largest variety of flies. The very smallest reptiles and amphibians will prefer melanogaster, and bettas will love them, too!

Fruit flies require little to no maintenance – basically, you simply shake a few out for use as food, and watch them get replaced as the flies continue to reproduce! Once you receive your flies, just remove the plastic cap from the vial and replace it with the foam plug provided. The flies will continue to live and reproduce at a steady rate in the vial as long as they're kept at about room temperature. If they're kept slightly cooler than room temp, their reproduction will slow down, and if they're kept slightly warmer than room temp, bacteria may grow in the blue medium you see in the vial. As you use the flies, allow some to remain in the vial at all times so that they can continue to reproduce. In four to five weeks, several generations of flies will be produced for your pet's eating pleasure.

Culture kits are now available too!