Thousands of Grubs in Compost ( picture and video )

[geedub]

Good work injunjoe!

The adult BSF you caught were most likely two females looking for a place to lay eggs. It's pretty rare to even see a male, and they need a lot of room to mate because they couple in flight.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I was walking by the compost bin today and saw at least 4 BSF's flying around.

I opened up the lid on the compost and saw 2 good size clusters of eggs.

Then I dug down into the compost and the thing was teaming with grubs... probably more than I've ever seen before... it was amazing!

I hope I can keep all the new hatching babies fed well.

 

[Dar]

i dont know about the grubs but my blind dog was so interested in the bawk bawk of the chickens in the video she was "watching" the screen and tilting her head from side to side... it was priceless...

 

[SunnyD]

Quote:
Nifty, Thats exactly my problem. I have a Bio-Pod in which I raise the BSF and my wife and I don't have enough leftovers to keep my larvae happy

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

In that case I'd probably make friends with a local grocery store or farmer's market person and see if you could get their scraps every week or so.

 

[theburtschickens]

nifty chicken, great idea. we actually get paid to take away the extra food at our local farmer's market in Nashville...we compost in several places, occasionally use some for my BSF larvae

, and then we sort all the good food out and take it to low income neighborhoods, homeless shelters, etc. it saves them money on disposal, plus the farmer's market people think it's right to not waste all that organic matter. i bet there are plenty of farmer's markets who would welcome a similar thing...

i still haven't figured out a way to harvest my BSF larvae once they mature and migrate. I have two buckets, and three bins now that are filled with the larvae. But to get them for my girls (chickens) I have to go digging, or sometimes I get lucky and pick out a piece of melon or something that has a hundred in it's concavity.

Any other ideas on this? I think one would be "buy a real biocomposter and stop trying to make your compost pile work!" haha

 

[SunnyD]

Quote:
With my BIO-POD they simply self harvest in to a small container outside the "composter." I put sawdust or some wood shavings in it and when they drop in they work their way to the bottom cleaning off anything from your bin that my be clinging to them. I simply screen away the sawdust and have about 3 cups of clean grubs. My chickens and ducks go NUTS for them. I can't get them to eat any other kind of "treats" anymore. It's like they are all hooked on grubs!

 

[geedub]

Quote:
You could try this: http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/2008/07/25/collecting-immature-larvae/

It works best if you haven't added many scraps to the pile recently.

Below are some shots of the larger collector I'm using now. These were taken over a period of one hour*.

(click images to enlarge)










*It doesn't always work and I don't know why.

 

[Fudgie]

Quote:
You say this and you have a naked neck as your avatar!

 

[chickenmamaK]

Thanks so much for this posting and all the comments. My compost bin is filled with those nasty looking grubs. I used to be bummed about it, but now I'm excited!!!