Geeez people! STOP releasing soldier flies into the wild if they're not in your area. I know it seems all innocent and all but that's just how we end up with all the invasive species.
I understand the concern about invasive species mrgrackle, but insisting that people stop culturing BSF is excessive. I think you know that BSF are not classified as invasive, nor is there any evidence that they will harm the environment. On the other hand there is good evidence that they are powerful allies in helping us deal with our waste situation.
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I know I know ... black soldier flies are present just about everywhere. But obviously if you're having to release them where you are to try and build up a colony for yourself then they're not there and maybe it's for a great reason that we just don't understand.
I don't see your claim as obvious at all. What you apparently don't understand is that most people who are releasing BSF on their property aren't doing it because there isn't a wild population, they're doing it because they don't want to wait for the wild BSF to find their unit. I live in an area rich in BSF and last year I released 10's of thousands of them on my property. When I started a new colony this spring it took me two weeks to get my unit started. Most people just don't have the patience. We all live around wild fish but markets still sell a lot of fillets.
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Killer Bees where some guy's 'good idea' till they got released into the wild.
This example seems like hyperbole designed to scare people. It certainly doesn't relate very well to the situation with black solider flies. Killer bees are a hybrid of two bees, both of which are not native to our continent. BSF are a native insect and they are not a hybrid. Besides that they don't sting or pose a threat to humans like killer bees do. Being a native insect there are natural predators to control the BSF population. In fact there are thousands of species that happily prey on BSF larvae and adults.
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The Emperor of Japan was given some blue gill as a gift. He took them back to Japan and now they're an invasive species.
Tilapia are running amok in the rivers of Texas.
Hydrilla is clogging the lakes of Texas. Duckweed is causing problems all over the place.
Snails snails snails.
Asian Tiger Mosquitos, Fire Ants, Rolly Pollies (ok, who doesn't love the little pill bugs) ...
Again, these are all invasive non-native species. They are problems mainly because of the absence of natural controlling influences. This is not the case with BSF.
It's interesting that you downplay the fact that BSF are native to our continent and that they can be found in most states in the U.S. I've even found references to them living in and being used in forensic studies in Canada, but to give you the benefit of the doubt let's consider the transferring of BSF to an area where they may not currently be found. What might the harm be?
Since there are no natural barriers to BSF migration we can probably assume they haven't thrived in an area because the environmental conditions aren't favorable. In that case the BSF are not likely to survive well outside of the controlled environment of the BioPod. If you remove the BioPod from the equation then the same factors that limited BSF in first place will control or eliminate a transferred BSF population.
One of the main reasons I don't fear the effects of promoting BSF populations is that they are total scavengers. If they run out out refuse they can not target living animals or turn to fresh fruits or vegetables. In that case they would simply parish because as highly specialized scavengers they can only support a population based on available waste. More importantly as long as humans create mountains of garbage there will be no shortage of BSF food. BSF are not designed to eat unspoiled or unbroken items so they can't thrive on fresh products.
I agree that there exists the possibility that BSF will have a substantial effect on the environment and that effect is the reduction of landfill. It's really very simple, we create a lot of garbage that we don't know what to do with, and BSF larvae love to eat garbage. As long as we offer up our garbage to BSF they will eat it and thrive. If we stop they will return to normal levels because there is no other way to support a large population of them.
At this point I will repeat an observation I've made a few times before; even a healthy population of BSF goes almost unnoticed by nearby humans. I'm currently operating my old homemade unit and my new BioPod at full capacity and visitors to my property have no idea that the BSF are even there. They don't pester people. Period. Visions of swarms of BSF buzzing around a BioPod or coming into your home are simply false.
The bottom line mrgrackle is that BSF only have a larger niche because of the huge quantity of waste that we generate. By generating excessive amounts of waste we unwittingly support a huge population of bacteria that break it down. Bacteria can be beneficial, just like insects, but in the case of food waste it isn't the safest or quickest or most cost effective way to eliminate waste.
In my opinion nothing beats BSF for processing our garbage and I've even presented a challenge about that on my blog. You can find that post here: The black soldier fly challenge
Perhaps you would like to leave a comment challenging my position. The truth is that I welcome questions like the ones you've posed, especially if they are objectively framed.
