Black Soldier Flies - THEY CAME!

[anatess]

I was super surprised!

When I started this system, I never thought I'd get flies in there. I mean, they say these flies live in Florida but I've never seen one so I was worried that the only flies my compost will attract are the pesky house flies. I was very surprised to find out that after a couple weeks of the bin sitting out by the chicken coop that there are ZERO house fly maggots and a lot of the Black Soldier Fly maggots! They just came! Like in that movie Field of Dreams.

Anyway, this is the system that I copied (I just built my own out of this picture):

I went ahead and routed the exit pipe into a 4" drainage pipe in the coop that I'm using as a chicken feeder so I don't have to handle the maggots. They drop into there and the chickens gobble them up when they wake up in the morning. Well, at least that's what I hope will happen. I haven't had anybody climb out of the bin yet.

Sorry, I can't post pictures of my set-up. We're still recovering from Irma and our coop is still on lock-down. Our chickens are in a dog kennel in our garage. I'll post pictures when things go back to normal. Oh, P.S., my DIY coop (my one and only construction project in my entire life) sustained ZERO damage from the hurricane! I AM SUPER IMPRESSED! Ok, this doesn't necessarily mean I did well in building the coop. It could also mean my husband did an amazing job tying the thing down.

 

[fat marans]

Here's a tip
Some insects stay close to their preferred microhabitats. They can escape detection for years, but once you find them there are immense populations.

I wonder if anyone has developed a method to only lure in black soldiers and not other flies. It would sort of be like separating iron filings from sand: make a "magnet" (compost bait) that other flies find unsuitable for breeding in and thus ignore.

 

[anatess]

Here's a tip
Some insects stay close to their preferred microhabitats. They can escape detection for years, but once you find them there are immense populations.

I wonder if anyone has developed a method to only lure in black soldiers and not other flies. It would sort of be like separating iron filings from sand: make a "magnet" (compost bait) that other flies find unsuitable for breeding in and thus ignore.

I haven't heard of a way to separate BSF from other kinds. What I have heard though is that BSF are such rapid feeders that they "choke out" other flies for food competition. So, as long as I don't over-feed the BSF I have in the bin, the other flies won't be a problem - or so they say. I've had house fly (those giant ones) problems before because I feed my dogs raw and sometimes they leave some morsel sitting hidden on the deck which attracted those flies (close to where my chicken coop is now). So, I'll see if these flies become a problem with this compost bin and I'll report back here.

 

[fat marans]

Good, if they outcompete the other flies then they have "sorted" themselves by species quite neatly.

 

[lazy gardener]

 

[Embalmergirl]

Somehow, without even trying, I got black soldier flies into my compost bin. Now I have big fat maggots that my girls delightfully enjoy. They come running when they see me opening the bin & start begging for a tasty morsel.