Science Sunday: Fruit Flies part 2

We have been observing fruit flies for a little over a week.  No I never did get rid of them completely so it was easy to catch enough to observe.  We actually caught them in two jars, but I focused on the one. It was actually weird.  The jar we observed more closely had 1/2 of a not very good peach (they had all been dry and tasteless thus I figured I would get more use out of them by feeding them to fruit flies).  The other jar had the other half of the same peach plus some strawberry tops and, I think, a blueberry.  The fruit flies in that jar seemed to be more numerous at first, but it didn't have near the same amount of maggots (if that is the correct term for the larva stage of fruit flies) as the other jar.  The peach in our observation jar ended up disintegrating to mush, but the other one still has shape to this day.  Though there was more juice in it at first and I wonder if the larvae drowned?  No clue.  Anyhow, the girls, Tabitha specifically, got as excited as I did when I would call them over to see something new I had observed.
Day 1: I set out the jars with the peaches over night and in the morning I very very quickly covered the jar with a cut up piece of pantyhose held on with a rubber band.  I wish I could have had an accurate count, but they are constantly in motion.  I was estimating 20.
Day 2: There was no visible change
Day 3: We observed several maggots slithering around on the fruit and the bottom of the jar.
Day 4: Many, many maggots were all over the inside of the jar, I made sure none were sneaking out from underneath the rubber band.  Won't make that mistake again.  I found it interesting watching them move.  I guess I would say they move like worms.  The front juts out and the rest of the body catches up with it.  What was really interesting was noting that the midsection of the maggot is slightly darker and I could watch it undulate as it moved.
Day 5: Some of the maggots are entering the pupa stage, they are a cream color.

Day 6: Most of the maggots are now in the pupa stage.
Day 7: The pupa are getting darker, close to brown.
Day 8: At 2:00 pm I saw 1 new fruit fly.  It was very light in color compared to the mature fruit flies caught last week.
Day 9: The jar is full of fruit flies.  They tend to gravitate to the opening and if you hold it up to your ear you can hear the buzzing.  No, I am not counting them!!

We made a Fruit Fly Life Cycle Book:

(Coloring the peaches)

(Gluing on the peaches and pantyhose)

(Tabitha working on Day 3)

(Gluing on some maggots, made out of yarn of course)

To see what others are doing with their toddlers and preschoolers head on over to 

I am also linking up to Science Sunday hosted by Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom

 

Science Sunday: Fruit Flies

This is my first time linking up with Science Sunday which is hosted by Ticia over at Adventures in Mommydom.  I anticipate linking up a lot more in the future.  

We had a small fruit fly problem.  I wasn't sure where all the fruit flies had come from because we had had some a week or so earlier and I thought I had done a good job capturing them.  But we were being swarmed by the sink and over on one part of the counter.  More on where they came from later.  Hubby looked online for ways to get rid of the nasty pests, seeing as my way seemed not to have worked.  Vinegar was recommended (don't ask me what website he was on).  So he put some vinegar in jar.  

We also had an empty but not cleaned apple butter jar, so I put that right next to the vinegar jar.  

Those didn't seem to be doing much.  The vinegar attracted a few fruit flies to the rim, not unlike any surface in the house.  The apple butter jar had more flies on the rim, but I was unable to capture them because they didn't go in.  Why go in, the apple butter sat right there in on the rim.  So we had another 2 jars in which I placed cantaloupe rinds.  I put one by the sink and one on the other counter. The next morning there were fruit flies galore in both jars.  I quickly covered them, the peanut butter jar with the lid and the glass jar with plastic wrap held on with a rubber band. 

Here is a video:

I decided to let them go because that was the mistake I made a couple of weeks ago.  I thought the flies were safely caught, couldn't get out.  I forgot about them in the corner.  A couple of years ago I had done an experiment with fruit flies.  I wanted to see if they would be attracted more to a bad bruised spot of apple than to a healthy spot, so I placed said apple pieces in 2 separate jars.  Both apple pieces attracted fruit flies, but the bad piece attracted many more.  I then decided to keep them for a while to view the lifecycle. (It seemed to me that they must have a really short cycle as they always seemed to start with just a couple then in no time I was over run with fruit flies.) So I didn't think anything of leaving them there.  Unfortunately, while the rubber band over the plastic wrap kept in the flies, it failed to keep in the maggots.  (I know, how could I have missed that?  Seems they stayed in the plastic wrap that was hanging down and entered their pupa stage so when the new flies emerged they had easy access.)  I didn't want to chance it again, so we just disposed of them.  I then caught some more, planning on still doing the experiment after all.  But, did you know fruit flies will die in a jar with a screw on lid. Oopsie.  So the plan is to now do it again and cover it with a cut up stocking as I did two years ago.  The reason I want to do it again is because the girls are old enough to appreciate it more.  Especially, as we talked about lifecycles when we did our ladybug lapbook.  

At least now I know the best way to capture fruit flies is to use fruit.  Seems obvious, doesn't it. Tomatoes also work well, as do banana skins (why waste the fruit when they will like the skin, hehe).