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.
