Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Black Soldier Fly project

I don't have experience with the final stage larvae. I've either fed them to fish or released them in the woods.

CL, if your scraps are drying out I suggest you add a little water.

Still no BSFs here. I threw out the old scraps (lots of ants) and added some new. Plus, I put the bucket of scraps in a pan of water (like a mote around the bucket)so hopefully the ants won't be a problem anymore. GW, when are you getting the kits?

Hey rmedgar, they're saying that the BioPods will be in late May, but you know how deadlines are...

I keep my container on sawhorses and I occasionally spray insecticide on the legs. The BioPods are on tripods which will be less work than the 8 legs of my 2 sawhorses.

I've seen more females laying eggs lately so I'll have some larvae to send you soon enough. I haven't seen ants yet but my scraps have all kinds of flying insects on them now. The dominant ones at the moment are fruit flies. Once the BSFL hatch the others will be gone in short order. The BSFL won't kill the other species, they'll just displace/repel them.

Think my scraps are moist enough. I'm getting a lot of flies and gnats in there, also molding of the bread and apples. Is that ok?

I asked Dr. Sheppard about the old refrigerator as a pupation bin. No answer yet.

Should have my starter "Phoenix Worms" next week...lol! Well, this week sometime since they ship out Priority Mail tomorrow. Can't wait!

My girls are laying on moldy bread. It's probably like Bleu cheese to them.

only on pondboss

I saw some type of large fly larvae in my BSF container a few days ago, but I'm not certain that they're BSFL. I've seen Black Soldier Flies laying eggs, but there has also been another insect visiting the scraps that may be a fly. The larvae I'm seeing look very similar to BSFL, but I have a gut feeling that they aren't. I have some photos of the unknown insect and I'll do some research into it.

Regardless of what this other insect is the BSF will eventually take over the scraps.

Maybe some kind of hover fly, GW.

This is what I'm seeing bobad:



They appear to be laying eggs and they've been outnumbering the BSF.

Here's a link to a copywritten image that looks similar. Ptecticus trivittatus

That's a mean looking fly for sure! You might even come up with a new and more interesting grub...

My new BSFL got their first taste of the sewer plant screenings today and seem to like it just fine. Determining their suitability for further use will be a different story.

I still have not seen any adult BSF coming to call but we are still having some fairly cold nights. Perhaps as it warms a bit and my purchased Phoenix Worms start smelling that smell they do...

Charlie, I believe this other fly is also a Soldier Fly. They were on the scrap pile first and I think the large larvae I have now came from them. I'm a little concerned that they also have the info chemical that repels other flies which might hinder the BSF. I've seen BSF laying so I'll just have to wait a little longer and see if they hatch and thrive.

Well maybe them being relatives will allow a big family get-together

Hey rmedgar, how's the BSF coming? My previous 2 attempts haven't gone very well but I'm trying a new approach and I thinks it's going to work out better. I made some BSF "bait holders" out of the ends of soda/pop/coke 12-pack cartons. This allowed me to move the bait to areas where I saw the flies. I also used only a few cups of food. I want to have a little more control over this stage of the process.

I put dog food, refried beans, cottage cheese and coffee grounds into the boxes and set them on my household garbage cans. The larvae like coffee grounds so I thought I'd try using some to attract the adults. I've kept one of our garbage cans around a few days beyond what I usually do and it's just beginning to smell a little. That worked to attract the BSF and the rest was easy. I watched as BSF landed on the bait and laid eggs throughout the day. The BSF visited the can one or two at a time. I think I'll do this for the next few days at which time I should see some larvae begin to hatch. I make a point to keep the bait/scraps moist and I think this aids the development of the eggs.

I'm sure I can refine this technique for attracting the initial flies so that we don't have to go through so much frustration at the beginning. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm putting the bait into closed containers at night, and after a few days of putting them out I'll move them to a closed container until the BSFL hatch.

GW, still no luck. I'm going to try the smaller containers like you did, and also add coffee grounds. I'll move them around some and see if that helps. They'll show up eventually.

That's cool GW! What about the "juice" made by the larvae? Have you tried any of that as adult bait?

I got to feed some fish today. Not BSFL but blow fly larvae that are self harvesting in high numbers. Put some of my baby Phoenix Worms along side to show the size comparison. A week ago, the BSFL were no bigger than the blow fly larvae...

Those city lake perch tore in to those little spikes like nobody's business

rmedgar, I recommend that you keep a close watch on your food scraps while you're initially trying to attract BSF. It doesn't take very long before the bait becomes unpleasant to work with, and if you use something like the cardboard box in my last post you can throw it out easily if you don't observe any Black Soldier Flies. If you do observe BSF laying eggs in or around the box you could probably just leave the box in your BioPod and continue to add food scraps as the larvae develop. It makes me think of starting a campfire from kindling, sort of.

Since I raised and released 10's of thousands of BSFL last year I have plenty of adults in the woods near our place now. (They are not a nuisance at all.) I've let a garbage can get a little "ripe" and they are coming to it, mostly in the afternoon. It's been sunny and warm over the past few days and when I checked the BSF bait I would usually find 1 - 3 of them laying eggs. They don't seem to be afraid of people and I can usually walk up to the container and watch them laying without disturbing them.

I've kept the bait on top of the garbage cans and it's not unusual to see the BSF laying eggs directly on the can or on the exposed garbage bag instead of in my bait boxes. This creates an additional opportunity for harvesting eggs. I will cut off the exposed edge of the garbage bag and put it in my BSF container until they hatch. Once I have the colony established I'll just remove the plastic.

If BSF are laying eggs you should be able to see them after a few days. Both of the photos below are BSF eggs that have been deposited on garbage can lids. The first one shows eggs on the inside of a lid and the second is on the outside. You can't see the eggs with the naked eye when they're first laid, but they increase in size after a few days.





It shouldn't be too long before I can ship you some larvae if you don't have any luck on your own.

I've got a plastic trashcan that someone else converted into a composter. They just drilled holes all the way around it... I found two identical ones on the side of the road. When I used them the first year I was suprised and a little alarmed when they got filled with BSF maggots. I read about them on the web and decided it wasn't anything critical but I wasnt trying to encourage them since I was trying to make traditional compost. I finally gave up on the bins because they just became a liquid mess during the summer. The BSF had a field day in there.

Now that I've got an aquaponics system and 15 hungry sunfish to feed I've set one of the trashcan composters back up. I filled them all the way up with dry leaves and then soak them down with the hose till they settled down to about 2/3rds full and absolutely drenched. Then I just started adding the compost that from the kitchen I usually send to my worm bin. I know I can compost meat in there but... that just brings up a whole host of other issues with transmitable diseases, especially since they're going 2 steps down into my food chain, pests, etc.
I cover the compost with just enough leaves to keep it from stinking. The maggots have already shown up and started churning though 30 rotting oranges that where laying on the ground from my sour orange tree. My worms won't touch these.

The lid is on the trashcan. It's in full sun most of the day and I live in central Texas. It's really steamy and hot inside the bin but the maggots seem to love it. From what I've seen the literature tells you to keep them in the shade... maybe my colony would thrive even more in the shade.

Since I belive in building my own stuff out of recycled materials I couldn't see spending hundreds of dollars on a biopod (though it looks like a great item for the right people! my DIY design doesn't match it...). My idea is to just scoup some of the compost out of my trashcan composter and fill up a 5 gal bucket and then just tilt it 45 degrees over my tank and how the BSF self feed themselves to my fish. I've got 2 small buckets set up to see if they do it for me.

Hi mrgrackle, welcome to the forum. Thanks for the comments about your experience and plans with the Black Soldier Fly. I especially want to comment on the issue of pathogens, but I need some time to organize my thoughts so I'll post that later.

If you aren't able to shade your BSF they will either find a way out when it gets too hot or they will die. I've had both of those results in my tests. For a simple, low maintenance BSF culture you need to shade them.

I doubt that using the leaves as you described will help in raising BSFL, and if they generate heat while breaking down they could actually be creating more of a problem. I raised 10's of thousands of BSF larvae last summer in south Georgia and there were only a few times that odor became an issue. Each time I experienced odor problems with the BSFL it was due to my ignorance about raising them. Odor can become a problem if your BSF colony gets out of balance, but with a little experience that's easy to avoid. A properly balanced BSF colony will have a very mild and even somewhat pleasant smell. If your colony does become unbalanced it doesn't take long for it to return to normal function.

For the record, the retail price of a 2 foot BioPod will be $159. I applaud your efforts to use recycled materials but there are good reasons to consider purchasing a manufactured unit instead. ProtaCulture and ESR International is a company that works to make waste processing more practical and supporting them will result in aiding the spread of more Earth friendly technologies. If ProtaCulture doesnt' succeed as a company it will be much harder to promote the use of BSF. I vote with my money, and whether or not I become or remain a BioPod dealer I would still support the company. As a dealer I'll make some money too, but even if I didn't I would still work with BSF and promote ProtaCulture.

I look forward to hearing about your progress.

Today I tried harvesting some BSF eggs that were laid on the garbage can lid and liner. I began by cutting out the areas of garbage can liner that had eggs on them, but then I noticed that they flaked off easily. Instead of being sticky they're more oily, and they slid off the liner easily when scraped with a knife blade. If you look closely at the image below you can see a shiny spot where I harvested a clutch (?) of eggs.




Here's my harvest:



After harvesting the eggs I put them into a 1 gallon plastic container with a lid. I rinsed it out first and left a little water and added some Gamefish Chow.



Like much of what I do I'm not really sure why I'm experimenting with a BSF hatchery. It would be simpler to just let them lay their eggs in the BioPod and let them develop there. Maybe it will be easier to share eggs with my friends than to ship larvae...

GW, I've read this post from beginning to end and have gotten so much information from it. I've been interested in BSF larvae ever since I came across the Biopod in another forum about a year ago.

I can't remember where I read it but they were saying one way of transporting the eggs would be on a piece of cardboard versus sending live larvae. Have you tried this yet? I'd be curious to see if they would survive in the mail.

Deane
Western Washington

Hi Deane. I haven't tried shipping eggs yet but I'm studying the collection and incubation time now.

I'm pretty sure I read that the eggs hatch in about 4 days, but I'm beginning to have some doubts. I've observed BSF laying eggs in and around my bait boxes for over a week now and I'm still looking for the larvae. They've been depositing all over the inside and outside of the boxes but I can't even see eggs developing. I must be missing some piece of the puzzle. Still, I have no doubt that I'll have a colony established pretty soon. I still have the eggs I collected from the garbage cans a few days ago and they don't seem to have changed at all.

Later in the day when the BSF return to the bait boxes I'm going to place some cardboard near to the bait. After several BSF lay their eggs on it I'll remove it and contain it for observation. I want to see for myself how long they take to develop.

I'll also be working on a blog about BSF today and I'll let you know when it's ready.

EDIT: I was wrong about the eggs I collected on the 10th, some of them have hatched. I posted before taking a careful look this morning. The newly hatched larvae are about the same size and shape as the fully expanded eggs and I only had to watch for movement.

Now that I think of it I really don't have any evidence that the eggs I've collected are BSF and not another species. Well that's kind of embarrassing. I'll know soon enough! I should learn something by isolating a medium that I've seen BSF laying eggs on.

GW,
Congrats on a great thread. I just got finished reading through it and it is a fantastic idea. I too passed over this thread for months without any interest, but I am glad I finally decided to check it out. I may be interested in doing something like this, but would like to find out more info and the practicallity of the BSF and a northern climate.

Thanks bbjr, you're not the only one with questions about northern climate. I'll try to look into this soon.

I'm getting more confident that the eggs I collected are BSF eggs. The little BSF larvae in the hatchery seem to be doing alright with the Gamefish Chow, but I wonder if Purina might consider marketing Maggot Chow.

Here's a photo of the hatchery this morning.

Honestly, GW, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Purina ALREADY makes "Maggot Chow".

GW, if you want to try sending eggs thru the mail, I'll volunteer.
I'd also like to get some larvae, and will be glad to pay - just give me a price. I'll email my address. Thanks, Randy