Fly Aspirator Tube: A Simple Tool to Transfer Live Drosophila

- A fly aspirator allows researchers to safely transfer live flies without physical damage or the use of anesthesia, which may affect experimental results.

To assemble the aspirator, you will need plastic tubing, two 1-milliliter modified pipette tips, a nylon mesh, and a trimmed 200-microliter tip. Create a fly holding chamber at one end of the tubing with the larger pipette tips and the mesh. The mesh is kept in place by the overlap of the two tips.

Insert the smaller pipette tip into the other end of the tubing to create a mouthpiece. To capture a fly, hold the open end of the fly chamber close to the fly. Provide suction with your mouth from the other end of the tube to pull the fly into the aspirator. The mesh prevents the fly from moving any further down the tube.

To expel the captured fly, align the chamber opening with the target, then gently blow into the tube, providing enough force to push the fly out of the chamber. In this example, we will use a fly aspirator to load flies into a grooming chamber apparatus.

- To begin the experiment, prepare an aspirator to move live Drosophila from a culture vial to the grooming chamber. Using scissors, cut 1.5 feet of tygon tubing. C