fruit flies...?

so i went to petco to pick up some fruit flies for my mantid. but i think..they are dead? what is it supposed to be like inside a fruit fly "can". i opened it and inside is a little peice dry of foam paper stuff with a bunch of dry greensih blue crusty stuff which im assuming is supposed to be food. there are a bunch of little white things on the sides (larva?) and a bunch of dead flies. i was expecting to open it up to see a humid environment with a bunch of life inside. so what do i look for when i return this one and go back for another?

topped

Look for it to be moist and have some amount of movement inside. Since you bought a can full of dead ones, they should be willing to let you open it first. You are buying the translucent plastic jars of them, yes? If so, it should be pretty easy to open and check and reclose before buying.

thank you marla. ya its in the transleucent plactic jars. im gonna go get some good ones now, thanks for the help.

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You are buying the translucent plastic jars of them, yes? If so, it should be pretty easy to open and check and reclose before buying.

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Your like a scientist Marla! Lemme guess you build space shuttles when your bored. Very impressed you actualy know about buying fruit flys!

LOL, Paul. I had to breed wingless fruit flies in high school science class, so I've checked them out occasionally at the pet store to see what condition they appear to be in. I don't know a dang thing about space shuttles except the heat-resistant tiles come off at very inconvenient times and I don't want to be a passenger on one. ;)

Wow...I didn't even know you could buy fruit flies! LOL!

lol...well petco has penty of dead ones for ya. i went back and every single culture was dead and dry. except for one that was extremely wet. but still dead. so i left a banana out in my yard. i got one fly but it escaped. oops :) .

I hope you got your money back and headed to Petsmart or somewhere else. It typically takes up to a week to get fruit flies with your banana and jar, if I remember correctly. Maybe he'd eat sugar ants? Those are certainly easy enough to come by.

ill hit petsmart tommorow. ya i got my money back. i had like 5 fruitflies on the banana just this afternoon. but that was before i decided how i was gonna capture them. hehe.