Here are selected emails I’ve received and my best shot at the answers.
I bought my first composter in June. It is a tumble
composter that I added a bacterial accelerant to
and mixed greens and browns into. I think I used a little too many
wet greens as I now happen have a well established BSF colony! I
have three questions - first is should I continue tumbling, or do I
leave new food scraps on the surface? Second, do BSF eat corn husks?
And lastly, how might I separate the newly processed soil from the
BSF so I can use it in a garden? Thanks!
I don’t think that continued tumbling will hurt the BSF grubs, but if the scraps get buried more than 6 or 8 inches the larvae might not eat them.
BSF can’t process cellulose so I doubt they’ll target the corn husks right away, but It’s possible that they might work on the husks once they decompose some.
If you’re worried about the BSF larvae causing problems in the garden I can’t imagine what harm they would do. They aren’t designed to eat living plants or fresh vegetables so I don’t see any problem with adding them along with the compost. Having said that, if you want to separate the larvae you could put fresh food scraps in one corner of your unit and that should concentrate them for manual removal. They are especially fond of coffee grounds. You could also try this method: Collecting the immature larvae The dark brown larvae are the final larval stage and they don’t eat so you can’t attract them with food. If the walls of the container are damp or at less than a 45° angle the mature larvae will migrate out on their own. The mature larvae could also be added to the garden without a problem.
Stumble upon it!
