Anyone using black soldier flies?

[Papas Chickens]

Can BSFL be used to compost lawn clippings?

They do better with vegi and fruit matter, you could put some lawn clippings in with it make sure it hasnt been sprayed with pestacides.

 

[enola]

Doing the happy dance !!!! I saw 3 adulf BSFL around my FF bucket this morning !!! I just started a compost bin for them 2 days ago......... Now to get them to go to the compost bin to breed ....... ..

 

[Papas Chickens]

Well I had two baited plastic coffee buckets I only have one left my brothers stupid goat ate the other one (she ate the plastic bucket and all) I really dislike that goat.

 

[RichnSteph]

I'm finally up and running with BSF larvae for the chickens. I build a bin with crawl off ramps at either end and just this morning got our first grubs in the collection buckets. We actually got the BSF larvae on accident when they invaded my compost pile so now we've got the compost in a shipping crate (hot composting) that is attached to the bottom of our BSF bin via a small plenum. The compost crate will provide extra heat to the BSF bin and the liquid that drips out of the holes in the bin goes right into the compost below. I'm hoping the combined heat of both will help keep the larvae and flies here and producing over the winter.


RichnSteph

 

[aldarita]

This is my second year growing BSF larvae. Last year was great, I got lots of them for my girls. This year has been awesome until this month. I have tons of pupae in my 2 biopods, however only few of them are climbing into the bucket. I keep on feeding them but they don't leave the feeding section of the biopod. They seem mature although they are not black yet but huge. Does anybody know what is going on or have a similar experience? I am so tempted to put them thru a strainer so I can give them to my chickens. Usually I have a lot of them falling into the bucket even some that are not matured but now it pains me to see all this amount of pupae eating like there is no ending and getting fatter and bigger and not coming out of the mash. Any comments will be appreciated.

 

[RichnSteph]

This is my second year growing BSF larvae. Last year was great, I got lots of them for my girls. This year has been awesome until this month. I have tons of pupae in my 2 biopods, however only few of them are climbing into the bucket. I keep on feeding them but they don't leave the feeding section of the biopod. They seem mature although they are not black yet but huge. Does anybody know what is going on or have a similar experience? I am so tempted to put them thru a strainer so I can give them to my chickens. Usually I have a lot of them falling into the bucket even some that are not matured but now it pains me to see all this amount of pupae eating like there is no ending and getting fatter and bigger and not coming out of the mash. Any comments will be appreciated.

Although this is my first attempt at it I think I've found an answer. I too have noticed a fast drop over the last few days of the amount of grubs self harvesting (I tend to watch them pretty close). I even dug into the mash to be sure that I still had larvae in there. What I saw surprised me. 1) There are lots and lots of BSFL in there in all stages from very tiny to large and almost black. 2) The larger, not quite black ones, are eating the maggots that are in there. What I've read is that once temps drop outside they stop crawling out to burrow into the earth and become flies and instead become dormant. Over the last couple of days our temps have dipped below 55 at night and I think that's what's happening. Other than manually harvesting them, which at 5am when I feed is not going to happen, we either have to figure a way to keep the bins warm at night or just give up until spring. The temps inside my bin this morning at 8am were 14 degrees hotter than the ground outside according to my little laser temp thingy so I know it's warm enough inside for them to burrow and mature. What I've considered doing is putting a small plastic tub inside sunk down into the mask and putting some of the mature ones in there in some soil so that they will continue to mature and become flies and then mate and lay eggs throughout the winter so I get a jump start on the harvest come spring. I'll probably also insulate the exterior with black foam board to help out.

I know it doesn't help the self harvest issue but that's the best I've come up with.

RichnSteph

 

[aldarita]

RichnSteph, I believe you hit it right on the spot. That is exactly what is happening. Thanks for the info, I couldn't figure out what was going on, never thought about temps coming down affecting their behavior dah! you have also given me great ideas for the winter. This past winter I moved my biopods to the green house and I think I cooked them, you are in Texas so you know how crazy our weather is. It got cold during the night and then into the 80s in the day. I had to start from scratch this spring, but this winter I am getting some of your ideas and will insulate the furniture we built where I keep the biopods (which is on the north side, bad location!) and place a heat lamp inside to keep it cozy.
BTW, do you use egg traps in your container? I used them last year but had trouble keeping them dry. I am very close to Houston and humidity is just awful all year long. They got soggy and fell off. This year I didn't use them but it looks like where ever they lay their eggs is working.
Once again, thanks for your input. I was getting worried about the situation.

 

[RichnSteph]

Aldarita,

If by egg traps you mean the stacks of cardboard then yes I'm using them but I haven't seen a single egg or little larvae on them. I know there are eggs being laid in there somewhere since I have larvae in all stages crawling around in the bin. On a side note I looked in there late yesterday afternoon and there wasn't a single common maggot to be found. I think they were all eaten or driven off. This of course means that once again the area around the bin, coop and compost pile is free of common house flies.

RichnSteph

 

[aldarita]

RichnSteph let us know how it goes with your experiment (placing a small container with mature grubs inside your set up) to continue to get flies and eggs thru the winter.
I just got out a bucket of grubs for my girls and 2 boys. I had to rinse the mash with lots of water. I still have plenty of them.
It is so much better when they self-harvest

Temps are continuing to fall down at night so I better hurry up and insulate them.

 

[RichnSteph]

RichnSteph let us know how it goes with your experiment (placing a small container with mature grubs inside your set up) to continue to get flies and eggs thru the winter.
I just got out a bucket of grubs for my girls and 2 boys. I had to rinse the mash with lots of water. I still have plenty of them.
It is so much better when they self-harvest

Temps are continuing to fall down at night so I better hurry up and insulate them.

So far the temps in the bin are still high enough that they are self harvesting. I haven't put the tub in there yet but plan to do so tomorrow and I'll update throughout the winter to let you know how it goes. We did figure something out this last week though. When you add the mash (we use left over brewers grain) we end up with masses of house flies laying eggs in there. If we wait for a while before adding any new grains then the BSF larvae get hungry and consume the maggots of the house flies. Yea it sounds odd to use one fly larvae to feed the other but heck it's free food for he BSF which in turn makes food for the chickens. Win-win in my book. Right now we probably have tens of thousands of BSF larvae (from mature sized to so tiny it takes a magnifying glass to see them) in our bin. I can turn the material in the bin, add 30lbs of feed grains and by morning the entire surface is smoothed over and rippling with movement. A few days ago I poured 5 gallons of fermented chicken crumbles (it went soooo bad fermented that the hens wouldn't eat it) into the bin and the increase in BSF activity was insane. The heat from the feed and grubs sent the bin into overdrive for self harvesting. We were getting a half pound per side for a few days there. The chickens love them.

RichnSteph