Dear Carmina,

Most of the time, we make our own food using the Bloomington recipe.  But there was one line I created which was rather sickly and not laying well at all on our usual food.  Growing them on the Jazz Mix resolved that problem.  It's a decent enough medium and quite easy to make, and obviously, for at least one sickly strain seemed to work better. 

But we use a lot of fly food, and it's thus more economical for us to cook up own food using the traditional recipe.  Furthermore, the Bloomington recipe seems to keep better (less mold or fungi growing on it after some time has passed), and not dry out as quickly.

Hope this helps.  Good luck.

Hey thanks a lot for your reply, I wont be maintain to many flies, that is why I am still deciding if to use pre-prepared media or use my own, still debating, but I think the Jazz Mix might be a good way to start up. Thanks a lot :) good luck with research

I agree with Shaad. Even if you aren't maintaining a lot of stocks it is more economical to use the Bloomington recipe. Many of us at small schools do this. You can always make a only 4 trays at a time and store them in a cold room or fridge. The vials can last for a few weeks if you keep the fridge around 10-12 degrees C. If the fridge is too cold, you will get too much condensation though.

Hi Carmina,

I have used Ward's instant Drosophila media and Genesee Nutri-Fly Instant media for several years for a couple reasons:

1) My experiments generally involve a small number of vials and it is convenient to make them one at a time.

2) My experiments frequently involve exposing flies to toxins (e.g., paraquat, KCN), and reconstituting the food with an aqueous toxin solution is very easy.

However, the viscosity of the reconstituted food can be somewhat variable and this has caused problems with drowning and reproduction. I am also concerned about the nutritional differences between Ward's and the Bloomington formula, particularly given my interest in longevity.

For these reasons I will be switching to the Bloomington formula and I just (literally, 10 minutes ago) received my order of "Nutri-Fly Bloomington Formulation" from Genesee. From what I've read (and as stated by others above) you can make a single batch that will last for a few weeks if properly stored, so even though I won't need more than a couple of vials at a time, I hopefully won't be wasting too much food.

Best of luck!

-Dave

So after all my PhD I though of giving this an update, I used both the normal Bloomington recipe for big stocks and the Jazz media in another laboratory where we handled very little stocks, I have to say I was quite impressed by the price of the Jazz media, and given that at least in the other laboratory access to an autoclave was limited the Jazz media made my life very easy specially when I was just keeping a couple of stocks. Therefore, I do agree that for big stocks and a big drosophila lab one most go the Bloomington recipe way, however for a lab where the fly might be just a small toolbox in a mariad of other experiments the Jazz media is a good economical option since the time of prepartaion is non and is effective for stock keeping.

Thanks everyone for the great advice you gave me when I have no idea of how to handle flies or nothing :)