Black soldier fly larvae: poultry, fish food

I got real excited and built a bin on that fellow's model about a month ago.  ordered some larvae.  then realized it won't really be warm enough for them here for two more months or so.  patience is hard.

If you've got an insulated cooler the larvae produce heat as a byproduct and you could get a head start on the season.

Reading some your previous posts about rearing the flies this might interest you (link). Heather had some success getting BSF to reproduce inside in a fairly small enclosure. This was using natural light but she intends to try artificial lighting at some point. I believe her intent is to use the 'Honeymoon Hotel' to restock her Biopod.

I stuck rigid foam insulation to the sides and top and surrounded the whole thing with straw bales.  still had to keep a heater going under it to keep the temp above sixty.  but them, I only got 700 larvae for a giant bin.  I think that once the thing is established this summer, it shouldn't have a problem making it through a cool season.  just got excited and tried to start the wrong time of year.

if I could put it inside like Heather, things might be different, but that's just not going to work yet.  hoping to have the greenhouse up before it gets cold again this Fall, and there will be room in there for a cool season bin.

I think my best bet is going to be patience.  the biggest downside will be paying to feed the ten chicks that will be hatching next week in the mean time.

  This spring I added rabbit cages over on end of my compost bin.  Over the last few weeks I have noticed a steadily growing BSF population.  It sounds very strange but I am so excited,  its like a free permaculture gift.  They seem to be doing exceptionally well in the rabbit manure and in areas where the fresh kitchen scraps are dumped. 

  I am interested in containerizing a portion of them an trying small amounts of meat.  I supose the long term question is  could they eat the waste from rabbit processing?  Anyone have any experience with this?

Yes, it seems they eat almost anything moist and dead...check out this author's experience
http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-07-26/home-and-garden/17171947_1_compost-pile-food-scraps-maggots

thomas i would just put some ramps out of your compost bin and let the BSF self harvest into a bucket, then you can feed them to chickens. use the chicken manure to grow pasture greens to feed the rabbits which will complete the cycle.

Wanted to report that I have started a BSFL colony as far south as Honduras via wild parents. I live north of Tegucigalpa near Zambrano and they are active here year round.

These posts are all from 2010 and 2011... did any of you actually experiment? Results? Has anyone fed them goat poo?

Ok, i'm intersted in this very subject, as a way to supplement my fishes diet.
I can understand the principle of the making of the bin and stuff. Lots of info on the likes of Youtube etc
What i cant seem to work out, though, is what happens should other types of fly get there 1st, and all you end up with are maggots, and, a few days later lots of (say) bluebottles annoying the heck out of you?

Reg

My BFS larva population is doing extremely well on rabbit poop, I have had no problem with house flies. I think that they would eat goat pooh as well. For the time being I just fill a saucer ( gold pan works well) directly from the compost pile to feed the chickens. No elaborate bucket or self harvester here.

All the info you need about black soldier flies -
www.blacksoldierflyfarming.com

Nicholas Covey wrote:Things like this make me wonder sometimes if there are other insect, or lower creatures which can be farmed or raised for our benefit. Bees and earthworms are noteworthy, but there are billions of species of insects.

The only "domesticated" insect is the silk worm.

Bees are wild creatures we house and rob. they never get "tame", although we breed them to be more calm.

Anyway, you're right. With hundreds of thousands of species, we could and should use everything available. We may, as with bees, create a symbiosis where we all benefit from the joint ventures. We use lady bug beetles to reduce aphid infestations. Praying mantises work the same way. Geese are good watch, er, animals, and so on. There are probably hundreds of good ideas not yet incorporated into the permaculture philosophy.

Hi folks!

I've been doing some research on the BSF stuffs for a bit, and was considering even buying (or making) one of those bio thingies that help to breed them efficiently enough to use as feed for chickens, etc, as well as taking care of compost.

However!

This spring I built me a keyhole garden, with the compost basket in the middle and have been steadily tossing all waste in there. I planted sweet potatoes (which, grew like a charm, but, never produced tubers, I think my soil was too compacted, will fix that for next spring's planting)


Oddly, despite copious amounts of compost, I could never fill the basket...I'd assumed that I'd fill it, then, switch to my compost pile, and then back.. but... no!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I went to push aside the vines and check yet another time to see if there were tubers, before ripping the vines out to prepare for fall plantings... but..
Under the vines, I saw bazillions of black larvae... (ok, actually, really really a lot...) Initially squicked, I looked closer, and realized, Black Soldier Fly larvae! YAY!

I can't fill up the basket, because it is being consumed faster than I can place it in there. AND, I notice that the vines closest to the basket where twice as large as the vines at the edges of the garden.

And, bonus! While initially, there had been ('regular') flies around the compost basket, I had failed to notice that for the last few months, there had been none..

Now, if only I could find a way to capture the larvae to feed my ducks.... any ideas?

Here is my home made, inexpensive, better for the arthritic back, keyhole garden:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swifthoundbows/sets/72157631280157008/

Best!

Lightly

The easiest way I have found to capture them is to scoop up a small bucket of the material in which they are feeding and place it in the sun. The larvae will quickly move down out of the sun and the material can be scooped off the top. If the remaining material and larvae are dumped into a smaller bucket and the process repeated, eventually there's a solid mass of larvae at the bottom of the bucket, which can then be fed to the critters of your choice (in my case my aquaponics Bluegills )

Tyler!

My thanks! Duh, I should have thought of that, it is a very good solution, and, I will try it asap! I intend to remove the vines very soon, and can scoop up the larvae as I do so... there should still be more than enough to further stock the compost basket and to give my ducks a nice little boost of yumminess.

Thanks!

Best;
Lightly.

I'm about to build the BSFL bins in the "basement" of our greenhouse, beneath the rabbit hutches and above the fish tank.

My only concern is whether I need to "strain" out the urine. If it were red wrigglers (which we cannot use there because of limited available height), I'd pull the liquid out and use it outside for nitrogen. But it seems BSFL are not unhappy with a yellow shower several times a day. Or am I wrong?

If I am right, however, it will save me a lot of work (one of my goals), and give us better "residue" for the compost bin (and wriggler bins, if and when I get them incorporated).

No need to strain out urine. If it gets too wet maybe add some carbon. Like grass which I need to add today. BSflies have done an excellent job so far with the pig manure. Stand next to the huge bin and hardly smell it. I add any animal entrails and pretty nuch gone in a day or two with hardly any smell. I do have a problem getting then to climb up the ramp however. They seem to want to climb straight up and out.

steve temp wrote:No need to strain out urine.

Thanks.

I had hoped that was the case, and from what I have seen, it was a valid hope.

If you know, will worms (red wrigglers) be happy in the same environment?

If people want to raise black soldier fly larvae to feed fish, You might want to skip those steps and directly feed fishes. Some species like the bullhead eat everything and they can live in and they actualy prefere swamp and dark water. I even put one on the grass and the fish lived for 2 or 3 days. They can breath by their skin( they dont have scale) They are perfect for stagnant water. They do not have fish bone. They make a lot of babies too.

I use a separate bin for worms. BSF are aggressive and seem to pretty well force all other critters out or eat them. I don't feed my BSF to the fish as is aquaponics system and do not want to contaminate with manure. I feed mine to the chickens. I have not had any other problems with them they are generally not seen outside. Stragglers that escape are great food for wild birds.

So Cool. Thanks all!

Hello,I am new here,but I have an idea for a massive BSF self harvesting set up.
The key would be to use an ICB tank
I would keep it sealed, and manage heat and air via "cheater" vents.

My question is about feed; I only want to use these beasties to make Not-Food or Crap Food into Good Food. basically fast composting, which seems to be their specialty.
They apparently will eat almost anything, but I would like to feed them only that which the chickens or rabbits wont/shouldn't eat.
In fact I only discovered BSF while looking for something to doe with my meat/ bone scraps. I currently compost right in my raised beds with sunken tubes-I don't even have red wigglers, just earthworms.
No chickens/fish either, but if I start raising these larva and still have no animals to feed them to, I could just blend them up into composting tea...

I once read an article on feeding roaches a blend of pulped garbage(including plastics!) and then blending the remaining bugs for use as human/plant/animal feed.
So I am looking to use unusual inputs, like pulped paper or cardboard, grass clippings, autumn leaves,sawdust-basically worm/fungus food.No plastic! Unless they could really digest it...
I would mix this stuff with "regular food", and let them go to town. Being a plumber , I have a couple of beat up garbage disposals ready to do the job.

On a side note, can the larva climb rough vertical surfaces? I might want to simply give them roughened paths for their migrations.

Another alternative I am considering is using the sunken pipes with the BSF. If a place to to pupate was set aside, the waste and bug juice could just enter the soil , and the bugs need never leave at all.
A six inch pipe inside of an eight inch pipe, with soil in between and painted black could possibly beat the cold, but it would need to be white in the summer time...

It is my understanding that bsf do not process carbonous/cellulose/lignum type materials very well... Kitchen scraps (including even fish bones to some extent), culled fruits and vegetables, meat/fat trimmings that are not eaten or processed for home use... Anything that is already given over to bacteria or mold should NOT be fed to anything but more bacteria and mold (meaning, compost pile)... Most manures are quickly turned by bsf, whether human, chicken or llama


Yes; they can crawl up a vertical surface that is moist and/or rough in texture.

Thank you both for your replies.
I was sky-bluing with my son about a chicken hutch perched right above the BSF bin in such a way that the scat went down and the larva crawled up, when it occurred to me to ask if the gullets of these beasts somehow sterilize what passes through them. After all, cat and dog poop is not recommended for composting due to pathogen transfer issues,so how does feeding these poops to the BSF make them any safer than "feeding" them to the compost pile?

I see your point on the mold,at least on the bread/cereal/grains front but as for bacterial spoilage, I cant see why one would need to protect most creatures from this.
No flat beer,no yogurt,rotten fruit,greenish chicken, brown wilted lettuce, etc?
If it isn't too rotten for a human to eat it, well just eat it! Sure you will have some scraps, but honestly, the only reason I wont eat certain animal bits is either the concentrations of toxins and or bacteria.
Other than that ,I say scrape the poop out of it and pack it full of the other bits , and eat that sausage as god intended!
What does a BFS eat in the wild? What does a red wiggler eat in the wild? And what is poop full of if it isn't full of bacteria?

BTW, I am not trying to be argumentative, I am just confused, so I'm asking questions...

Thanks for the info on climbing, it will be a lot easier to make a a rough vertical path than to fiddle with getting the angle right.

Now I will follow that link-expecting another wonderful rabbit hole!