I would have responded sooner but I’ve been super busy.

Besides the uses I’ve mentioned on this blog I’ll also be using BSF larvae to feed several Peacocks that my girlfriend is getting soon. The birds are mostly for fun but I hope to be able to harvest some eggs occasionally.

One problem with a BSF unit on top of a fish tank is that it seems designed to feed the mature larvae to the fish. In my experience fish prefer the juvenile larvae. Another issue with mature larvae might be digestibility because of their tough, chitin rich “skin”. Unless the fish break a larva’s skin I think it would pass through undigested.

Concerning BSF in checked baggage I believe they would survive almost all of the time. The temps in the luggage would need to reach freezing to kill them, lack of moisture takes a relatively long time to effect them, and in one study BSF larvae survived several thousand times the force of gravity in a centrifuge.

“If left to wonder away from the biopod instead of capturing the mature larve in the container, how far will they wonder?”

The current data that I’ve found states that mature BSF larvae can crawl up to 100 meters in search of good pupation site.

“How deeply buried to the mature larve put themselves in the dry leaf area before they pupate. Do they dig down a foot? or just inches?”

That’s a question I can’t answer. I suppose it varies with the environment that a particular BSF population lives in. Since they can’t survive freezing I assume that in colder areas they must dig down below the frost line. I’ve been told of BSF existing in some fairly cold places.

One time, in one of the many spots that I had the biopod, I had my five gallon bucket on top of anther bucket to help manage the liquids. I just let the mature larve drop out the side through holes from my container. I figure I found dozens of the mature larve about 15 feet away under some pots that I had. This means they fell down two feet, crawled through a black garden pot at thebottom, wondered through the grass, and found this pot and decided “This is the spot”. Not just one here, but a dozen. Not just this one pot, but several other pots within that fifteen feet, had their own dozens.

This prompts me to ask another question. How deeply buried to the mature larve put themselves in the dry leaf area before they pupate. Do they dig down a foot? or just inches?

I found out about the bsfl in researching aquaponics and using them as a source for the fish. Does anyone have a diybsflbiopod on top of a fish tank for the fish to eat the mature larve?