Comments for Black Soldier Fly Blog

Comment on new black soldier fly forum by Jerry

Jerry — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:04:01 +0000

Hi Walter,

Congratulations about the BSF and sorry about your worms. We can probably help you out with some of issues you’re dealing with, and the best way for that discussion to happen is for you to join our forum. The bad odors and houseflies you mention are signs that your BioPod is out of balance and there are fixes. Luckily BorealWormer who helps run this site and the forum is very knowledgeable about worms as well as BSF. Joining the forum is fairly painless and I hope to see you there.

Comment on Do-it-yourself BSF bucket bio-composter by Chicken Notebook by Ben Discoe (Egg Farm / Blog) | Take control of your own survival and grow Local!

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:39:26 +0000

[...] The trouble is usually not with growing the larvae, but harvesting them efficiently. There is a product called the Biopod (around $180 + $80 shipping to Hawaii) which is a plastic tub with ramps for the larvae to crawl out and fall into buckets for each collection. A cheaper alternative is the Do-it-yourself BSF bucket bio-composter [...]

Comment on new black soldier fly forum by Walter Renwick

Walter Renwick — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:07:32 +0000

My name is Walter. I live in Los Angeles, CA. I keep several worm bins & thought I would try out BSF. I purchased the BioPod & it works great – too great perhaps. In no time, I had a huge colony of BSF. (Using soggy bread as BSF bait seemed to do the trick.) But my experience has not matched those of others in this blog: (1) My BioPod does smell pretty bad. It’s the effluent liquid that comes out of the BioPod that smells so much. I believe that it may contain ammonia or acetic acid (vinegar) from the larva or from some bacteria that colonized my BioPod alongside the BSF. (2) I do get houseflies in my BioPod. On a warm day, clouds of them would emerge when I opened the lid. Houseflies particularly like the effluent & gather around the tap. The only way I control the houseflies is to keep the bin in the shade & drain the effluent regularly. (3) BSF larva do not seem to play well with compost worms. After setting up my BioPod, I had BSF everywhere & they quickly overran my worm bins. I believe it is the effluent secreted by the BSF – that perhaps it is too acidic for my compost worms. Early on, I poured about 1 pint of the effluent from my BioPod into one of my worm bins, thinking it would add to the worm tea I collect. Worms abruptly surfaced from their castings & writhed about. Then they died. I had a pretty big die-off in that bin the following day. Overall, since starting the BioPod, my worm population has fallen off & my bins have become choc-full of BSF.

Comment on BSF as fish bait by Mike aka BW

Mike aka BW — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:41:32 +0000

Hi June. We've set up a BSF Locator map (link) displaying the locations of confirmed BSF sightings/wild populations. If you'd like to contribute there's a 'Report BSF sighting' link in the upper left corner of the map or you can use this link. Only locations which are submitted with adequate documentation will be used.

Comment on BSF as fish bait by June

June — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 04:58:15 +0000

Hi there I got these Margot’s in my worm farm going to try them on Barra up in the
N.T cheers june

Comment on BioPod™Plus by Jerry

Jerry — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:43:18 +0000

Hi Nic,

There are so many variables involved that it’s impossible to predict with any accuracy. The type of waste processed, ambient temperatures, density of larvae, etc., all have an impact. In most cases I would expect the unit to be emptied at the end of the warm season, assuming that you aren’t going to overwinter the colony.

The forum is the best place for a more detailed discussion.

Thanks.

Comment on BioPod™Plus by Nic

Nic — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:35:36 +0000

Hi Jerry,

could you tell me, based on past experience, the range of time between collecting the casting ?
Let’s assume a constant 5lb / food scrape under optimal conditions

Best,
Nic

Comment on BSF bucket composter v2.1 by AQUAPONIC / HYDROPONIC / COMPOST... | Pearltrees

AQUAPONIC / HYDROPONIC / COMPOST... | Pearltrees — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 01:36:56 +0000

[...] BSF bucket composter v2.1 » Black Soldier Fly Blog [...]

Comment on About This Blog by Jon Kirby

Jon Kirby — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 09:07:17 +0000

Hi You need an RSS feed to track you on my website and to give my followers a link to your articles Thanks jon
http://hawaiianparadisecoop.wordpress.com/

Comment on Mythbusting black soldier flies by Jerry

Jerry — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:32:16 +0000

Hi Jeremy C,

Thanks so much for sharing your project with us. If you aren’t a member of our forum it would be great if you would share data there. http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/forum