Anesthetic?

[Jeff Otto]

In article <01HHYN56CE768WW4VP at INVERMAY.CRI.NZ>, FidlerA at agresearch.cri.nz ("Fidler, Andrew") writes:
>
>Can anyone out there suggest an alternative Drosophila anesthetic to diethyl 
>ether that might be more suitable (i.e. safer)  for use in a classroom 
>setting?

Two alternatives come to mind:
CO2 
Ice - just place your vials on a bucket of ice, and in a few minutes
the flies are anethesized - not necessarily good if activation of the
heat shock response will interfere with your experiment, but otherwise
simple and effective
Jeff