Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Black Soldier Fly project

A successful distributorship will largely depend directly on your ability to educate the public to gain wide acceptance. You have done well to educate in this thread so I see no reason you would not make a very good business educator as well. It is a needed product at a good time of going green and recycling. Go GW!

ETA...I would like to be your first customer. You have my contact info so please let me know when you're up and running as I may not be viewing the thread.

Well thank you CL, I appreciate the feedback.

I'm currently in the design and building stage of a 21ft diameter hoop dome greenhouse that will cover a fish tank and aquaponic grow beds. Your Bio Pod will be a great addition as an automatic grub feeder sitting right next to the fish tank. The interior of the dome greenhouse ought to be perfect for the year long maintenance of the BSF and their larvae. I'm glad to have found this forum and learned about the BSF through your efforts so I feel you deserve my business. Otherwise I would have been raising BlueBottle Fly Larvae on fish guts in five gallon buckets! I did that before and am fairly certain the good Lord above kept me from getting some sort of fly disease

The last PB convention had a presentation on aquaponics. Doc Cornwell in NY has several greenhouses like you described but bigger. You should contact him .

Is he here? Would be glad to pick his brain!

It will be interesting to see if the addition of BSFL excrement to gravel aquaponic growbeds will provide essential nutrients lacking in fish waste effluent...

Doc Cornwell can be reached at CORNWEMD@Cobleskill.edu or call the PB office and see if they have the info from his presentation.

Here is a prior thread - http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...true#Post101797

Thank you

Here's a link to my work in progress of the half hoop dome greenhouse if anybody might be interested...

Charlie's Half Hoop Dome Greenhouse

That link doesn't work for me, CharlieLittle.

Good to have you on the forum. I really look forward to your future input.

Bruce

Oh sorry! One might have to register as a forum member at CrayfishMates.com to see the thread.

I could possibly duplicate the thread here somewhere if there is an appropriate place for such and if there is enough interest.

While I'm at it, where would you like a tutorial on making fishing lure molds?

I think the link is ok Bruce, but you have to be a member of the forum to view it. I'll probably register later. A forum about crayfish has to have good people as members...

And everything you ever wanted to know about raising crayfish

Yes please. Although you should start it in a new thread. But I for one would really, really like to read the tutorial.

Who knew that flies could be so interesting. Keep us updated on your new website and business venture GW.

I'm still working on a title for ya.

Barron of the Black Soldier Fly?

High Priest of Hermetia illucens?

The Ayatollah of the fly named Black Soldya? (ok that's a bit of a stretch).

I'll keep working on it.

Are you sure you're not Brettski's alter ego? I mean, I've never seen both of you at the same place at the same time.

I will be glad to show ya'll all i know about making lures and molds. Just tell me what section of the forum...

Charlie, try the section at the bottom called "Pond Boss". That would be a good place for it.

I'm there. Sorry to distract your thread GW. I can't wait for you to start selling the Bio Pod and get myself one! I've told several people around town about it today. No problem in getting my 5 lbs of fresh food scraps per day! There might even be interest in a city central collection site where people bring their newspapers and such for recycling. all you have to do is let those kinds of folks know and they will gladly bring in the grub...to make me more grubs

No worries CL, it's just a thread.

Btw, the 2 foot diameter unit will process 5 kilos of scraps per day, not pounds. I have a 4 foot mega-maggo-matic on order.

5 kilos...Sorry I'm not up on the metric system but if I remember right that is 5 x 2.2lbs = 11lbs?

Here's another link to some BSFL info... BSFL in Aquaculture

It was reported by a fella over at Crayfish Mates .com that crayfish are very acceptive of the BSFL as feed but particles of the larvae were torn loose by the crays feeding habits and floated on top of the tank causing water quality issues. BSFL are particularly important as a crayfish feed due to the calcium they provide as crayfish need it in their moulting. I suggested some fishes that would co-exist with the crayfish to do away with the torn BSFL particles. Seems an acceptable solution.

I think you would need very small fish so that they didn't compete for whole larvae. Gambusia come to mind, but they would reproduce quickly. Perhaps excess Gams could be converted into crayfish food.

I would love to grow two or more isolated groups of fish at some point to test for growth rates using BSFL compared to other feeds. So many grubs, so little time.

Since it will be awhile till I can get my aquaponics system up and running with the greenhouse and all, we are going to try something different with the Bio Pod and the BSFL. There are many facilities like ours that have pre treatment grit classifiers. Ours is a brand new facility and we're still in the learning curve but one of the first things we've learned is that this stuff stinks! Right outside our office door and something has to change!



http://www.crayfishmates.com/crayfish_forum/uploads/1208049322/gallery_33_11_96120.jpg

This is the Hydro Grit classifier at our waste water facility which easily produces a constant 10lbs per day of fresh waste organics in addition to system grit that is in all sewer systems. The plan is to install the Bio Pod directly underneath the exit chute of the classifier and let the BSFL process the stuff rather than it stinking up the area, drawing flies and having to empty the dumpster pictured below...adding to landfill waste.



http://www.crayfishmates.com/crayfish_forum/uploads/1208049322/gallery_33_11_56085.jpg

Dumpster with 24 hours of grit accumulation. Smells like a grainery but worse. Contains undigested vegetable matter, particles of human waste and grit. Also get a lot of earthworms in there somehow through the sewer collection system, some dead and some alive...

I'm a mere unworthy student of Grand Master Brettskisan.

Sounds like a job for the BSFL to me! I think you may be a candidate for the 4 foot diameter BioPod. Don't forget that the unit would need to be out of direct sunlight though. You've probably read that BSFL control pest fly species by dominating the waste pile and by secreting infochemicals that repel them.

Would you be able to avoid adding paper and plastic waste to the BioPod? I suppose the paper would break down alright, but I would avoid plastic.

Btw, referring to part of the waste as "grits" created a problem with my morning meal.

Grit in sewer systems is anything not organic, sand, rocks, etc... There is a little plastic but not much in this station and it's shredded. The unit will be shaded except for the morning and that too could be fixed for constant shade.

I'm wondering about the Bio Pod lid. Is there a lid with just a round hole? I would need to fit a sock on the classifier outlet to a round pipe, probably PVC to direct the stuff into the Bio Pod automatically. It runs when the system needs it to run. Right now we have a lot of infiltration from ground water running into old collection system and storm rain infiltration. As summer progresses the flow will drop a lot and we will have less grit. Fall it will pick back up as rains come.

Some people are very curious as to the plan here. Can't wait to get going. Will start with the small one and go bigger if we need it...