This is the pic of the fly that was in my office trailer when I started looking into maggots as fish food.


I sent this and pics above to the good folks at whatsthatbug.com and they confirmed that it is a Black Soldier Fly (hermetia illucens). They said "The white tarsi or legs, which are especially noticeable on the window photo, are a distinguishing feature." If you go to that link you'll find my pics and question is the first one for 5/14, about 5 entries under the big green caterpillar. \:\) It's funny how common these are around my house and I never really noticed them.

Something I've learned is that you need to keep ants out of a BSF colony. I'm checking into suggestions for how to do this. After reading about the ants I realized that I had moved my scrap bucket to the ground. I checked and sure enough I had ants. There was also another BSF busy laying eggs on a piece of cardboard and a coffee filter. I saved the cardboard and filter and replaced the food scraps. Lately I've read that it's better to start a BSF colony with vegetable matter to discourage other types of flies from laying eggs. Of course this isn't an issue after the BSF are established and you can give them just about any organic matter.