Weekend Working

The lab I work in has a breeding facility for multiple organisms. We have mice, black flies, locusts (2 kinds), and fruit flies. The vast majority of this work is done by a technician and the students. However, on weekends and holidays it is important to have people come in and do some minor upkeep on the locusts and flies. I have now completed my third rotation of the breeding, it takes about one hour give or take and is not so bad. The main thing is feeding the two types of locusts. One species gets grass, the other cabbage leaves. It is also necessary to remove and leftovers from yesterday's feeding and try to keep the number of dead locusts to a minimum on the bottom of each cage. One interesting tidbit about locusts is that they can cause severe respiratory allergies in some people. Therefore, when handling them and stirring up their excrements it is important to wear a lab coat, gloves, and a dust mask. So far I don't seem to have any allergic response to the little bugs, but in many people it takes over a year of intermittent contact.


Mia and Mindy always come along and hang out in the stairwell while I work. Here is a picture of Mia checking to see if Daddy is done yet!


Adults in their cage, notice they all have wings.


A closeup of some juveniles, notice their wings are still developing and they are really colorful. Each species also has a few cages of albinos, but I couldn't get any good pictures of those. It seems that one of the neuropeptides that we study has some affect on the coloring of the different locust stages. It could be that albinos may allow some interesting physiological studies.

The breeding also consists of doing some things with the flies, but no need to take pictures of those stinky rooms. They eat raw liver and aren't very "pretty" to look at.