BSF larvae don’t normally crawl towards light but sometimes the mature ones will. Either way I wouldn’t say that they are ever attracted to light. I’d be cautious about any direct sunlight hitting your unit, especially if it’s a dark color. If it get too hot inside the unit the larvae will all try to escape, if they can’t and it reaches 113-115º (45C) they’ll die.

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I currently have one big rock in the bottom bucket to weigh it down, this has worked well. The buckets have not tipped over and are next to the house on the porch. I’m sure they get morning/noonish sun. Heat should be escaping the exit/entrance hole near the top of the 5 gallon bucket.

The securing of the lid on only 2 opposites sides has worked well, easy to get off and snap back on without doing the entire 5 gallon lid hassle. Vegetable oil moat has worked well, no ants.

Exit holes in the side would work, but juvenile larvae would also use them, if not in the daytime then at night for sure.

I’ve used some primitive set ups that do collect larvae using your idea of setting the wet container in a dry container. The problem there goes back to the juveniles escaping. Btw, there’s nothing wrong with a system like that, it just depends on your goals.

I’m also always interested in others ideas.

Because here is what I was brainstorming. Instead of building a ramp for them to exit on, just let them exit by holes in the side of your five gallon container. Since the young larve are light adverse, they would stay away from the light and not exit. But if the mature larve were not adverse to light, they would just crawl through the side in order to go away.

If you needed to harvest the mature larve (which I don’t), you could have the five gallon bucket in a larger bucket with leaves in the bottom.

What are other’s thoughts?

I like this design, especially the oil moat.

Here’s a few things to consider:

-You may have problems with the lack of ventilation if you maintain a dense colony. If you keep the population low then shading it should be sufficient. Also, if you live in a cool climate overheating shouldn’t be a problem.

-Keeping anything attached to the bucket with adhesive will be a problem because BSF are always trying to dig into every little crack they can find. If silicone will allow you to get through a whole season then I’ll call that a success.

-You might run into drainage problems without a pre filter material over the colander. That all depends on what type of waste you process. Regular additions of wood shavings might keep the liquids draining.

Overall great design, I hope you keep us up to date as you use this.

If you don’t have the skills to make the DIY composter maybe you can convince someone else to make it for you, or you could pay someone. Also, I’m not promoting the BioPod Plus but they are available.