I noticed more dead larvae today, something like 100 total. They were from all stages of development. This still isn't a large % of what could be more than 20,000 individuals, but I need to monitor it. A few days ago I guessed that it might be due to the higher activity level and subsequent heat created by the concentrated new food. That's still a possibility, but I have another idea. I think I may be creating a problem by feeding only a dried grain product. I doubt that many animals could thrive on dried grain without having some water to process it with.
Today I added about 3 pints of water to the BSF bin and it was soaked up immediately. My theory is that by softening the feed it will be more easily digested and hopefully reduce the mortalities. I was hoping to keep the steps involved to a minimum, but at least water is easily acquired and basically free. It does present a problem for setting up a totally automated system though. For now I'll start keeping a bucket of water by the BSF and I'll add a measured amount of it each day. The larvae keep everything mixed up so I just pour the water in randomly.
I want to add that I would never maintain BSF without using them to process kitchen scraps, etc. The point of this test with the hog feed is to quantify how many larvae are generated by a fixed amount of a consistent feed. After the tests are over it's back to natures finest garbage disposal system!
I've come to the conclusion that the BSF population adjusts to the available food. By increasing the amount of food you increase the amount of time it takes the larvae to eat it. This allows the food to give off more scent which in turn attracts more adult BSF to lay eggs. If the quantity of food is small, it's eaten before the egg laying adults get a whiff of it. (For the sake of clarity I will mention that the BSF bin currently smells like a fresh corn muffin.)
Since I recently increased the amount of food I'm now seeing females laying eggs in the bin almost constantly. Sometimes I see 2 or 3 laying at a time. My guess is that within a few weeks I'm going to see a population explosion. The BSF aren't shy about landing in the bin while I'm there. When they were coming in I wondered what was attracting them so I stuck my head into the bin for a careful smell. The odor is still very faint, but that's when I smelled corm muffin. I had my head in a plastic box with 20,000 maggots and I realized I was getting hungry.
