Thousands of Grubs in Compost ( picture and video )

[geedub]

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Not necessarily.

 

[cajunlizz]

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OK . please explain me exactly what you did . You said wheat , whatcha mean ? My chickens would go NUTS on a 1/4 of these

 

[injunjoe]

Bsflarva; Welcome to BYC !
I would like to get started raising these.
What is the best way to get them?
Can I attract them or do I need to buy some to get it going?
Thanks for your help.
Oh be careful, if you don't have chickens now, you will soon!
There is something about this place!

 

[cajunlizz]

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You mean the pine shavings you removed from inside the coop and you put outside or this was all inside the coop ?


the reason I am asking direct questions , because alot of people just keep adding more and more shavings to the existing pile inside the coop .

 

[geedub]

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Thanks injunjoe.

You probably have wild BSF in your area already, even if you haven't noticed them. I lived in the heart of BSF country for two years and thought I'd never seen one. When I started researching them I realized that I had been seeing them all along and assuming that they were some kind of wasp.

If they're already around you only need to put out some food scraps. Actually I've started my last few colonies with dry dog food because it can take 2 - 4 weeks and most things get pretty nasty after a while.

If you don't have luck (or patience) you can buy some "Phoenix worms" online or get some from a friend. You can probably go to a local feed store and ask them if they could spare some "meal maggots" and they may surprise you. If you get mature larvae you don't need to feed them, just let them go in the area you want to seed and in 2 - 3 weeks they should start emerging. If the closest food waste is your BSF container they will come to it and lay their eggs beginning the cycle.

Thanks for the warning about chickens, the last thing I need at the moment is a new hobby! (But I have always thought I would like to keep chickens....)

 

[injunjoe]

Quote:
Thanks injunjoe.

You probably have wild BSF in your area already, even if you haven't noticed them. I lived in the heart of BSF country for two years and thought I'd never seen one. When I started researching them I realized that I had been seeing them all along and assuming that they were some kind of wasp.

If they're already around you only need to put out some food scraps. Actually I've started my last few colonies with dry dog food because it can take 2 - 4 weeks and most things get pretty nasty after a while.

If you don't have luck (or patience) you can buy some "Phoenix worms" online or get some from a friend. You can probably go to a local feed store and ask them if they could spare some "meal maggots" and they may surprise you. If you get mature larvae you don't need to feed them, just let them go in the area you want to seed and in 2 - 3 weeks they should start emerging. If the closest food waste is your BSF container they will come to it and lay their eggs beginning the cycle.

Thanks for the warning about chickens, the last thing I need at the moment is a new hobby! (But I have always thought I would like to keep chickens....)

Thank you I will give that a try.
Yup, you see it has started to affect your thinking already.

 

[Selena]

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[URL]http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk32/blacksoldierfly/th_largeBSFlarvaecloseupwm.jpg[/URL]


Not necessarily.

Sorry. I look at them from a different viewpoint. As a customer who feeds them to 20" long dragons.

At $5.99 + S&H for 100 of these (at the largest 3/4" long) it's pricey to feed to a Bearded Dragon who's almost 20in long and can consume 3 3" long hornworms in one sitting. Then, consider I have 2 of the buggers. I could go through one or two tubs of these worms in a week or less! But if I had my own colony like these folks, it wouldn't be a problem. Hence, why I said they were lucky.

I do raise other prey for a more staple food for them. I raise Blaptica dubias and Blaberus discoids. AKA roaches. 2" long and home-raised? Perfect. ( I know some will be

and

)

So you see, my viewpoint is different.

 

[geedub]

Quote:
[URL]http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk32/blacksoldierfly/th_largeBSFlarvaecloseupwm.jpg[/URL]


Not necessarily.

Sorry. I look at them from a different viewpoint. As a customer who feeds them to 20" long dragons.

At $5.99 + S&H for 100 of these (at the largest 3/4" long) it's pricey to feed to a Bearded Dragon who's almost 20in long and can consume 3 3" long hornworms in one sitting. Then, consider I have 2 of the buggers. I could go through one or two tubs of these worms in a week or less! But if I had my own colony like these folks, it wouldn't be a problem. Hence, why I said they were lucky.

I do raise other prey for a more staple food for them. I raise Blaptica dubias and Blaberus discoids. AKA roaches. 2" long and home-raised? Perfect. ( I know some will be

and

)

So you see, my viewpoint is different.

My bias comes from having had colonies of BSF that numbered approximately 20,000 individuals, all raised for free using garbage in a 2 foot diameter container. In addition these larvae migrate into a holding container automatically and require almost no attention.

I also wonder how a roach compares to BSF larvae both in nutrition and in dry weight. Prepupal BSF larvae are 44% dry weight and contain 42% protein and 35% fat.

To me the size issue is secondary to nutrition, expense, and convenience. I would think that from the lizard's perspective it might be like when we eat rice; we don't consider how many individual grains we're eating, we're just eating rice!

Or larvae. :| It's all good though.

 

[injunjoe]

I was just at your blog. A very nice collection of info.
I even left a comment on the attracting bsf page.
Thanks;

 

[geedub]

Well thank you injunjoe. The blog is new and I'm doing my best to add more content. If I only had the time it would be huge.