You can see the holes I made relative to the adult BSF. If you look at the left side of the bucket you'll see a green circle and a female black soldier fly entering one of the holes. Males don't come to food scraps and are rarely seen. Adult BSF (the flies) don't eat, they mate, lay eggs and then die. That's why you never see many of them at one time. I've never seen a "swarm" of adult BSF, even when I had a colony of probably over 100,000 larvae and even though I've released an equal number of mature larvae on my property.
The biggest problem with my bucket set up was that it wasn't vented enough to provide sufficient cooling. BSF generate a lot of heat when they're processing food. One hot day I lost a large number of the larvae in this bucket. Of course the bucket didn't allow self harvesting either, it was just a way to get started. At some point I want to design a DIY unit that will allow people to experiment with BSF for only a few dollars. It wouldn't have the efficiency and convenience of a BioPod, but it would be good enough to introduce people to bio-composting. If yours works out well maybe you would share the design.
My girl was also very skeptical of the BSF at first, but within a few months she was holding them in her hand. People react badly at first because maggots are equated with swarms of disease carrying pests. Once someone understands that BSF are harmless and don't pose a threat they usually relax a bit. Even later when they see the valuable service BSF perform some even begin to feel affection for these wonderful bugs.
Thanks for posting. I hope to hear more about your progress.
