The Tucson Stock Center’s kitchen now offers Drosophila food to U of A faculty members. Food prices are typically less than making food in your own lab as the Center for Insect Science is subsidizing much of the labor for this service.

We do not use plastic vials, but we will fill orders for food in new plastic vials (cost of vials added to your order) or your existing clean plastic vials that you provide us in 10X10 cardboard trays (25mmX95mm vials only). We can not wash plastic vials.

1. Users: Use the create profile link above to set up an account. Please use one account per FRS#.
2. Orders: Orders received by Tuesday will be filled by the following Tuesday.Please plan accordingly.Orders may be ready earlier in the week, depending upon the volume for that week.Users will receive an email when their food is ready.There are over a dozen laboratories using the facility and at times several large scale are projects going on simultaneously.
3. Food pick up: As before, completed food orders will be placed in BSW 125.We notice that some labs have food many weeks old, sometimes months old, still awaiting pick-up.There is insufficient space in BSW 125 to support such a build-up and storage of old food has a potential for mite infestation.We ask that you pick up your order as soon as possible and store it in your laboratories until it is used.Food older than two weeks or partially-empty containers of food will be thrown out to avoid attracting and colonizing mites. You will not be compensated for this food.If you are unsure if you have food in BSW 125, please contact us. We will check for you and send you an e-mail.If you need to know the combination to the cold room lock, please contact us, 626-5900.
4. Replacement orders: Please inspect your food when you receive it. Report problems with the food ASAP. After 72 hours, we cannot honor requests to remake bad food. However, if your food is ready Friday afternoon, we will honor requests made by the following Tuesday.
5. Food containers: (vials, bottles) should be delivered directly to BSW 225 or BSW 604.This is very easy for customers who use disposable, plastic vials, and most of our users have vendors ship these directly to one of these two rooms.It is essential that users who provide plastic bottles in a secondary container deliver them in CLEAN storage containers: there have been instances when these containers were not clean.Suggested cleaning methods are autoclaving, immersion in a bleach solution or spraying with 70% ethanol.No items are to be introduced into BSW 125, nor is unused food to be reintroduced into BSW 125 once it has been picked up.
6. Mite etiquette: If anyone discovers or even suspects that they have seen mites in their laboratory or in BSW 125, it is critical that the entire fly community be notified at once.This can be accomplished by contacting Stacy or Carmella at flyfood@arl.arizona.edu.Even a short delay in responding to a mite infestation can jeopardize every laboratory on campus as well as the Tucson Stock Center.Please bring this to the attention of your group.
7. Billing: The ARL office administers billing. Billing is done monthly.