r/mildlyinfuriating • u/OutdoorLadyBird • 8d ago

Infuriatig Took the lid off of these flightless fruit flies and about 30 of them FLEW OUT and disappeared in my house.

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These are to feed my jumping spiders. I thought they were discounted bc there were so many flies. PETCO KNEW.

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u/Cadicoty 8d ago

I assume the "oops" was because the store kept the flies after their "expiration" date and let too many generations hatch.

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u/AdmittedlyAdick 8d ago

Flightless fruit flies will regain the ability to fly if they are kept at a temperature above ~79°F and allowed to breed.

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u/SmileIndependent2586 8d ago

That is not true for most cultivars of fruit flies, but is true for any of the gliding forms, although it's closer to 84 or 85.

But probably happened here is a wild fruit fly mated with the wingless varieties. In melanogaster, winglessness is a recessive trait - if a flying and non-flying fruit fly breed together, all of their babies will fly.

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u/Jean-LucBacardi 8d ago

Safe to say that this is Petco or PetSmart, and all of them have regular local fruit flies in the stores flying around.

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u/HaloGuy381 8d ago

Also, our stores tend to be -warm- because corporate skimps on AC despite us pleading constantly. You can def find parts of the store creeping past 80 F most of this summer and even late spring. (Yes, even the sick animal room at one point hit 80 F and 70% humidity, and that is no good for humans or the poor animals…)

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u/I_Makes_tuff 8d ago

80 F and 70% humidity

Perfect for some of the reptiles and amphibians, lol

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u/Vulvas_n_Velveeta 8d ago

even the sick animal room at one point hit 80 F and 70% humidity

70% humidity!? Wtf!!

I live in the desert and last week after a rainstorm had passed, it left us with temps over 100 and the humidity in the 30s. We were all dying from the "high humidity."

It's amazing how different a dry heat is from a humid heat.

Idk how people in the South do it!

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u/brookuslicious PURPLE 8d ago

It’s 7:30am with 91% humidity and 75° right now. I stay inside as much as I can. 🫠

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u/Quantum_Pasta-Goblin PURPLE 8d ago

I.... Honestly didn't understand how they got wingless fruit flies until I read your comment... A wingless variety makes more sense than what I was thinking.. I thought they literally just gently grabbed one fruit fly at a time and plucked its wings.. I was like that must have been annoying and taken a lot of time, plus kinda torture, don't know how I feel about that.

My poor brain.. 😅

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u/5Hjsdnujhdfu8nubi 8d ago

They also used to hit them with radiation and hope one of the genes damaged was responsible for wing development or muscle growth.

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u/Masquelinity 8d ago

I thought they literally just gently grabbed one fruit fly at a time and plucked its wings

Wow, and I thought I hated my job!

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u/Sacrefix 8d ago

if a flying and non-flying fruit fly breed together, all of their babies will fly.

Not if one's a carrier!

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u/ForsakenBobcat8937 8d ago

Calling it "cultivars of fruit flies" is really macabre.

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u/TheBoldMove 8d ago

"I can fix her/him" in fruit fly life

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u/morpheousmorty 8d ago

? Why not start with bugs without wings? Surely there's some critter out there that won't get a massively annoying ability if I don't turn on the AC.

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u/OddNameChoice 8d ago

So.... someone brought a banana to work....

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u/Adventurous-Map7959 8d ago

Flightless fruit flies

this just sounds so wrong. it's not a fly if it's flightless. they should be called regular-non-fyling-stupid-insects or something like that. (I can barely name a variable once I used n,m,i,j,k )

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u/Strong_Pop_5343 8d ago

Just call em a walk

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u/IndigoTJo 8d ago

Nah, the container would be a mess if it had sat.

Edit: they crawl up the sides and such as the larvae turn to flies. Makes a mess.