photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mediawench/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Dried corn kernels soaked in water are the best bait for attracting BSF females that I have tried. I’m currently using a batch that I began soaking over a month ago. Once fermented, the corn and water give off a strong sour smell that is great for attracting black soldier fly females.
Once the BSF are established the result is a nearly odor-free process, but in the beginning it’s best to have a strong odor so the females can locate the unit. I like using fermented corn because even though it has a strong odor I don’t find it as offensive as most rotting food. It’s not a smell that I necessarily like, but it’s one I can live with during the set up phase and once I’ve got a dense colony I can go back to the normal, mild and pleasant odor of a balanced BSF composter.
One advantage of this method is that you don’t need to deal with food scraps which tend to become moldy and also attract a lot of undesired species. I did see a few fruit flies and other small flying insects in and around the corn, but compared to other baits I’ve used corn is best in this regard. Most notable is the absence of blow flies and to a great extent, house flies.
I’m using two techniques based on this idea. I have small buckets of soured corn and water in a few places and BSF females are laying eggs in the buckets. Some eggs are laid on the bucket walls and others are laid on the dry corn that’s above the water line. The resulting larvae should be able to develop in the buckets, as long as the corn isn’t completely submerged. When there are a good number of larvae in the corn/water I’ll remove and reserve the liquid and use the corn and larvae to seed a new BSF composting unit. The corn will eventually be consumed by the larvae in the new unit and the liquid can be used alone as an attractant if needed.
The strained liquid can be used to help attract BSF females directly to new composting units. Attracting egg laying females is automatic if you have an established colony, but it is the biggest challenge in establishing a new unit. Adding the corn liquid to other scraps you place in a new unit will increase the attractive odor of the bait. Also, if you live in an area that has a limited BSF population or a cool climate this attractant might help you maintain a denser colony throughout the mating season by directing more females to your composter.
I’m sure there are many other foods that could be used in a similar way. I used corn because I can buy a 50 pound bag (22kg) for about $8 at the local feed store. The key is to develop a strong smell that will represent a food source to the female BSF who are searching for an egg laying site. I’ve been told by people in the Philippines that BSF are often found in rotting coconut meat. I imagine that if you applied the principle I described above with coconut as the base that it would also work well. Likewise, I noticed good results once after adding sour milk to a unit. Your goal should be to have a bait that you can smell from a few yards/meters away. If you can smell it from that distance the BSF will have no trouble locating your composter.
Comments 11
Jerry,
great concept. I love it. Especially usefull for the larger ProtaPod. Your logic to use corn makes sense. A lot of insect can be conveniently raised using a corn based meal or substrate. I guess it makes sense that a hood feed would make a great attractant.
Posted 11 May 2010 at 8:41 pm ¶I think. I will try. But, i`m live with many neighbours. I will try too.
Posted 17 May 2010 at 11:33 am ¶Hi Afiq,
If you’re worried about the smell of the corn you can control it by keeping it partially covered. If you can smell it slightly from a few yards/meters away that should work fine. The BSF have a good nose for these types of scents.
Posted 17 May 2010 at 7:39 pm ¶Hello
Where can I buy buckets of larvae ?
Cheer
Posted 21 May 2010 at 7:47 pm ¶CH
Hi Chris,
I think you can always buy “Phoenix worms” which are BSF larvae online and in pet stores , but the cost is high. I promote BSF starter kits on my blog which I collect and my sister sells through her company “The Green Man”. You can find information about our kit on this blog and they should be available very soon. There have been other site that sell BSF starter kits but they seem to come and go and I don’t know of any doing it now.
Posted 23 May 2010 at 8:56 am ¶Hello, I had a general question on organic standards you might know…if you feed the grubs scraps that aren’t considered organic, and use then use the grubs to feed your chickens/fish, would that pass through the food chain so the chickens/fish would no longer be considered organic?
Posted 24 May 2010 at 6:51 pm ¶Hi Bruce,
I’m afraid I can’t help with the question about the organic standards. It’s a good question though, please let us know if you learn anything.
Posted 24 May 2010 at 7:22 pm ¶Hi Jerry – thanks for all the great stuff you’ve posted here. I’ll try to get some pictures up somewhere of the DIY rig that I figured out. While waiting for a BioPod ordered awhile back I ran across your site and decided to jump start things even though I didn’t really expect to have much success unless I ordered a BSF kit from y’all. Well, it’s crawling with grubs and the smell is really nice and there’s always 3 or 4 BSF’s checking it out. I got a picture of a female laying her eggs today and figured out a good way to facilitate that by observing what she preferred. She crawled along one of the 2×4′s that’s across the top of my bin. It holds the cover of the bin up so there’s a gap that they enter in. She found a knot with a pretty good crevace and she stuck her hind end in a bit and splayed her wings out maybe 30 degrees and sat there for about 5 minutes. After she was gone I checked the hole and sure enough a mess of tiny eggs. So I proceeded to drill a bunch of 3/8th inch holes along both sides of each 2×4 to accomodate egg laying. I’m using two of the big black bins you get at Home Depot, the one’s with the yellow tops and stack and drill them so that the bottom one is a fluid reservoir with a spigot and put them on cinder blicks for a little extra height and offset from the ground. Ambient today was 94 and I had a big fan working but had a feeling I should check using a meat thermometer and sure enough it was running 104 plus in the compost so I ran up and got a bag of ice and put a layer down on top and about an hour later it was melted and the temp was 95. Being in Texas I’ll have to watch that close. Is it your experience that it’s a 10 degree differential? And I listened to the first part of the interview but couldn’t recall if you said trouble begins at 105 or 115 degrees. It was pretty exciting to lift up a piece of peach the other day and see the mass of different size grubs working it and then realizing that most of the tub was in motion if I watched carefully. Wow. I’m in it for the chicken feed but after seeing the dark compost after such a short time it has me thinking about other angles as well including compost tea. Most of my neighbors are gardeners and have taken up vermiculture in a big way but aren’t aware of what those grubs are in their piles. I’m about to do a grub for egg swap with one of them so I can accelerate my operation and build more units. Hopefully I’ll find the time to bring them all up to speed at the next garden club meeting and we all can advance the learning process. I really appreciate all you’ve done to bring this to our awareness. These are really cool critters and I love it when I’m out working on the coop and a couple of them come around to check me out as they do. Well, I’ll check in as things progress. Adios, John
Posted 30 May 2010 at 8:06 pm ¶Hi John, thanks for the great comment.
My favorite source of BSF info, BioSystems Design, lists upper limit for BSF survival at 113ºF. From my experience the trouble begins and ends there. One minute the larvae are extremely active and next their all dead. You were wise to take steps to cool the larvae at 104º. There isn’t a consistent differential between ambient and internal temps because there are too many variables. Container type, surface area, food type, the density of larvae, and amount of ventilation can all be factors and I’m sure there are more. In such a hot climate I would probably operate a BSF unit without a lid if possible. I would also want to have a lot of surface area relative to the depth of the unit. The food scraps are fuel so if you’re running hot I would stop feeding until it cools off. You might want to add the bulk of the waste in the evening so the larvae can process it mostly at night while temps are lower.
I look forward to hearing about your progress.
Posted 30 May 2010 at 10:07 pm ¶Hi everyone. I created a bsf bucker just like the one in the pics. I have started throwing all my veggy and fruit scraps in there. All I am getting though is fruit flys, tons of them. I am in northwest indiana. It seemed like it was so easy just put the stuff in and get bsf larvae. Not going so easy here. I am open to all suggestions.
Posted 19 Aug 2010 at 8:27 pm ¶Thanks,
Brent
Hi Brent,
I won’t say that BSF aren’t in NW Indiana but hardiness zone 5 is pretty cold for them. I’ve seen evidence that they’re present in Champaigne IL, so maybe there’s hope a bit further north. If I were you I would start talking with people who do a lot of composting in your area because compost piles usually have BSF larvae present when there is a wild population. I wish I could be more encouraging. If you’re really motivated you could try building up your own micro colony, but that would have to wait for next summer I think.
Posted 19 Aug 2010 at 8:57 pm ¶Post a Comment