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Category Archives: Raising black soldier fly larvae

Black solidier fly larvae-variation in growth rate

I recently collected a newly laid clutch of black soldier fly eggs for a photographic study of their development and I isolated three of them for the photos. I placed the three individuals and the remaining few hundred BSF from that clutch into identical containers. I didn’t keep detailed records, but there is an interesting [...]

Posted 24 September 2008 † Jerry § Understanding black soldier flies ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , ,

Black soldier fly composting in the frigid north

Black soldier flies are common in tropical and subtropical regions, but their range extends to the most northern states of the continental U.S. You can easily operate a BSF bio-composting unit in northern states during the warm months, but you can also maintain the colony through the colder months with a little extra effort.
A [...]

Posted 16 August 2008 † Jerry § The BioPod § Understanding black soldier flies ‡ Comments (20) ° Tagged: , ,

Collecting the immature larvae

This method doesn’t involve the dark, prepupal larvae which are self-harvesting
The coffee colored BSF larvae (prepupae) are the final stage before pupation into adult BSF. To our advantage they are programmed by nature to crawl away from the food source in search of a suitable pupation site. In a properly designed BSF unit these larvae [...]

Posted 25 July 2008 † Jerry § Utilizing black soldier fly larvae ‡ Comments (7) ° Tagged: ,

My new (ESR/ProtaCulture) BIOPOD™

After working with and blogging about black soldier fly larvae for over a year I finally have one of the first BioPods. For the past year I’ve been getting by with my homemade unit and I’m looking forward to testing this product. With that previous experience I’m pretty familiar with the shortcomings of my unit [...]

Posted 11 July 2008 † Jerry § The BioPod § Vermiculture and BSF composting ‡ Comments (6) ° Tagged: ,

I crashed my pod

Experiment causes black soldier fly larvae colony to crash!
Okay, maybe the Hindenburg image is a little extreme, but it’s difficult to get attention on the internet these days. The good news is that bringing my BSF colony back into balance shouldn’t be all that difficult. In the past when I’ve run into problems I’ve corrected [...]

Posted 26 June 2008 † Jerry § ‡ Comments (10) ° Tagged:

Timing the transition-larva to adult black soldier fly

MAY 30
Today I harvested the first of the prepupal black soldier fly larvae from this year’s colony. At this stage their instinct is to leave the food source and find a suitable place to pupate. I don’t know much about this part of the BSF life cycle so I want to find out first hand. [...]

Posted 30 May 2008 † Jerry § ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: ,

getting started - Attracting the BSF

To establish black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) you first need to attract the adult (winged) females so they can lay their eggs. To do this you need to bait them with some type of food.

Types of food for baiting BSF
You may use almost any food scraps, but I’m experimenting with different types to see which [...]

Posted 28 May 2008 † Jerry § ‡ Comments (5) ° Tagged: , ,