Growing Black Soldier Fly Larvae

[brownwidow1]

dang chikens thoose are ment for da fishys to eat but they still cute

[johnnyfisalive]

all u have to do is buy the bugs put them in a container with food and they will reproduce? or do they have to mature to flies and then reproduce?

[johnnyfisalive]

where can u buy these bugs to grow for feeding?

[Teddybearcop48]

How warm does it need to be for them to grow outside? Thank You!

[1bigfustercluck]

can't wait to get one of the smaller versions for my backyard!

[dx80cruiser]

Hi,

Can you tell me how many grubs you allow to hatch into flies to reseed the biopod, or do you just let the natural population of BSF to populate your biopod. Im in Aus as well and havent really seen many BSF around .How do you allow the grubs to hatch out?Just leave them in the collection tray to hatch and allow them to fly up the drop tube to lay eggs?

[1402janelle]

does it stink ?

[tebam11]

if you harvest all the larvae how do you keep adult flies to lay the eggs?

[50kT]

i really wanna see an aquaponics video about taking a fish out then bbqing it!

[thedancingtomato]

Lol da chickens are like nom nom nom

[yizo247]

that chicken looks just like the one i have at home!

[dwiggs77]

i always wondered what the hell those were in my compost pile .

[chardnj]

Do they live in tropical climate?

[johnlvs2run]

Is a discarded freezer being used for the fish?

[abuyemen25]

how do you control the insects. because if we use the ordinary pesticides, I think it is inappropriate to the fish

[Ladybugz1975]

I have been looking online to see if North Carolina has BSF. But I can't find any info on where they are. I wanted to breed them as feeders for our CWD.

Great video and very informative!

[SensualCoconuts07]

are they different from the flies that cause flystrikes and myasis ?

[BlackSoldierFly]

One more comment about what appear to be houseflies around the BioPod. In an established and balanced BSF unit you won't see more than an occasional house fly in, or even on the unit. The number of non-BSF flies visible in this video is not the norm in my experience. I've processed a kilo or more of fish scraps/day with only one or two house flies present. My guess is that this unit was fairly new when the video was made and since that time the presence of house flies has been greatly reduced.

[BlackSoldierFly]

Great video Murray, very interesting operation you have there. I have a comment that I hope will be helpful about the protein and fat content of the BSF larvae. The figures quoted in the video are 42% protein/30% fat which I believe is the analysis for dried BSF larva, not the fresh larvae. On his website Dr. Sheppard (Phoenix worms) lists the protein of fresh larvae at 17.3% and the fat content as 9.3%. Maybe you could add an annotation correcting this in your video.

Thanks, Jerry

[stAbbmeiful0vesme]

that gotta smell bad

[BlackSoldierFly]

@stAbbmeiful0vesme Actually it does not have to smell bad and it should not. A properly run BSF composter will smell like whatever you're processing plus a mild earthy aroma like wet straw. If you process strawberries it will mostly smell like strawberries. If anaerobic bacteria get out of control the system will develop a sewer-like odor. To avoid that situation make sure the unit drains well and don't feed more waste than the colony can process in a day or two.

[Noz7777]

I have a biopod at home now and some relatively small silver perch. How big do the fish need to be before they can eat the mature soldier fly larvae (brown and 2cm long)

[BizarreWorks]

i found these in orange, i was shocked

[TheLamelyNamed]

HAHAHA, the hens were like "YAY!!! FOOD"

So adorable.

[QuickFoxnl]

how do you prevent the "normal" flies laying their eggs?

[BlackSoldierFly]

@QuickFoxnl Studies have shown that when BSF larvae dominate a waste pile they repel other fly species. This is probably the effect of pheromones or info-chemicals that tell other flies that that particular waste is not a good egg laying site.

"BSF reduce manure accumulations 42-56% and give 94-100% house fly control through larval competition and by repelling ovipositing house flies (Bradley and Sheppard 1984)"

[impalapez]

@BlackSoldierFly It's almost too good tobe true...they compost/ harvest themselves, provide great feed for fish or chicken, AND they repel other pests!!!

[cybpmp2]

How do i keep the black soilder fly from laying their larvae in my composting worm bins?

[ConcernedMushroom]

you don't. they accelerate the composting cycle

[andaroobaroo]

where does one get the BSF eggs?

[realberserker]

There's no need for eggs. BSF are prolific breeders and they're widespread in nature. If you put out food scraps, they will colonize them.

I just started a BioPod next to a worm composter (so the BSF were already attracted to the area), and it had larvae in it within the week.

[A11ex]

fish -> nutrients -> plants -> fly larvae -> fish

Quite ingenious.

[GreenLearning]

My home made bio pod produced about 60 pounds of larva in a summer. Its a little bigger than his, but not much.

[adfasffs]

what a great video. these grubs are such basic food source for rodents, lizards, chickens, fish and monkey pet keepers!

[IRONxMortlock]

So how many larvae can you produce? Enough to satisfy the requirements of 3-5KL tank? Can enough be bread to make the system sustainable?

[TonyKaku]

I can't wait for the video release!

[moonlightbox]

Very nice! I am thinking to raise some BSF larvaes for my chickens too. Thanks for the information.

[odin422]

Excellent