Thousands of Grubs in Compost ( picture and video )

[SandraMort]

If I feed most of my scraps to the birds, then I won't have much left to feed to the compost pile. Can I vermicompost bird poop? Then I could rake up the stuff under the the roost with some bedding and toss it into a vermicomposting bin and occasionally pull out castings and worms for the birds to rummage through, working it into the deep litter... right?

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Quote:
ChicknGurl, BSF imitate wasps as a defense. They can't bite or sting, and it's pretty unusual for them to enter a house. Adult BSF don't eat because they only live long enough to mate and lay eggs. The males are rarely seen and the females are only looking for a good site to lay eggs so entering a house is accidental (unless you have a nice pile of food waste in there).

Well poop, they were probably females because they were real interested in the litter of the brooders my chicks are in. So they could lay their eggs? There's not much poop or food waste because I just cleaned the brooders two days ago. I don't have food waste in my house except for the banana peel I tossed (in the garbage can

) yesterday.

Now, I didn't see two black soldier flies in one day.

Two separate instances, one just happened to have been last night. The other time was a couple of months ago.

I've been wanting to start a compost, but I don't have a container for it and the area I thought would be okay happens to flood and keep standing water after it rains. I need to scope out a better spot on my property. Since the black soldier flies are in the area, I'd rather have them in my compost pile than pest flies.

 

[geedub]

Quote:
Vermicomposting uses earthworms to break down the waste and I haven't tried it yet.

BSF do consume chicken manure so they may be helpful in that way. I've found references to BSF creating some problems by liquefying the manure making it hard to remove. I communicate with Dr. Paul Olivier occasionally and I will try to ask him about using BSF for keeping chickens on a small scale. Dr. Olivier is one of the pioneers of BSF technology and a person dedicated to making sustainability work.

 

[geedub]

Quote:
ChicknGurl, BSF imitate wasps as a defense. They can't bite or sting, and it's pretty unusual for them to enter a house. Adult BSF don't eat because they only live long enough to mate and lay eggs. The males are rarely seen and the females are only looking for a good site to lay eggs so entering a house is accidental (unless you have a nice pile of food waste in there).

Well poop, they were probably females because they were real interested in the litter of the brooders my chicks are in. So they could lay their eggs? There's not much poop or food waste because I just cleaned the brooders two days ago. I don't have food waste in my house except for the banana peel I tossed (in the garbage can

) yesterday.

Now, I didn't see two black soldier flies in one day.

Two separate instances, one just happened to have been last night. The other time was a couple of months ago.

I've been wanting to start a compost, but I don't have a container for it and the area I thought would be okay happens to flood and keep standing water after it rains. I need to scope out a better spot on my property. Since the black soldier flies are in the area, I'd rather have them in my compost pile than pest flies.

A traditional compost pile might be difficult to keep off the ground but if you want to culture BSF larvae you can keep them up on sawhorses. You only need to support 30 or 40 lbs.

The BSF that entered your house may have smelled the little chicken poops. I'm getting the impression that chick poop is tasty stuff (to BSF larvae). :|

 

[Cuban Longtails]

How would the BSL do with chicken eggs? Sometimes I have bad ones, or left overs (didn't hatch or embryo died) from incubating. Would it be best to break open the shell or could you just toss the whole egg in?

 

[geedub]

Quote:
They would consume an egg in a few minutes and your egg would be converted into larvae to feed back to your chickens. You would have to break the shell thought.

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Quote:
They would consume an egg in a few minutes and your egg would be converted into larvae to feed back to your chickens. You would have to break the shell thought.

Awesome, the incubated but not hatched eggs don't usually smell when you crack them open. The ones that sat and rotted however... Maybe I'll just keep tossing those over into woods.

What would be the best method to use them for bio-composting if I couldn't get one of those nifty pod units (yet)? Would a plain bucket or plastic tote work?

 

[geedub]

Quote:
They would consume an egg in a few minutes and your egg would be converted into larvae to feed back to your chickens. You would have to break the shell thought.

Awesome, the incubated but not hatched eggs don't usually smell when you crack them open. The ones that sat and rotted however... Maybe I'll just keep tossing those over into woods.

What would be the best method to use them for bio-composting if I couldn't get one of those nifty pod units (yet)? Would a plain bucket or plastic tote work?

I wouldn't worry about adding an egg that smells bad because an active BSF larvae colony will make it disappear quickly and they will digest the bacteria that are causing the odor, I think.

The trickiest part of building a BSF container is setting up a ramp so they will self-harvest. When the larvae are ready to leave the food source they will circle around the outside walls so the ramp should start there. The ramp should be at about 40 degrees from horizontal and drop into a container with a lid. The unit also needs a lid to keep rain out, but needs some holes for ventilation and to allow the female BSF a way to enter.

Depending on what type of waste you add the larvae sometimes create a lot of liquid (tea) which will make the unit less efficient if it's allowed to accumulate in the bottom. BioPods have a filter and collection jar, but I think that's beyond most people's skills for a homemade unit. I've been letting the liquid in my homemade container drain onto the ground. That's not very efficient because the "tea" is a powerful attractant to female BSF and you end up with many of them laying eggs on the ground, not in your container. One way to deal with this issue might be to reserve dry waste like old flour mixes, cereals, grains, etc and add them when the mix gets too wet. I'm going to test some different non-food materials like sawdust to see if they will work to absorb the tea and allow the larvae to consume it so they process those nutrients instead of draining them off. One advantage of collecting the tea is that it can be used as a fertilizer.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I'm really glad this discussion is taking off!

FYI, for traditional composting (leaf matter, lawn clippings, etc.) check out the section on BYC's sister site TEG: http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=36

 

[Selena]

I took one look at the photo and thought, "Hey! I know those!"

Phoenix worms are the same thing and they are BIG with the reptile keepers. They're tiny though. I fed some to my older bearded dragon, and he'd gobble them up. Phoenix worms are very high in calcium. I just ordered some of these for my boys in fact.

YOU ARE SO LUCKY!!!

When I have more time, I'll have to finish reading through all the pages...