I have a small organic heritage livestock farm in central Texas (www.EdensCove.com). We raise Large Black Hogs and Royal Palm Turkeys. I've got a tub of 1000 grubs and some ideas for what I want to do, I need some guidance and feedback.

My primary purposes for raising black soldier flies is:
1. to manage the manure on our farm
2. repel house flies from the pig areas.

Some secondary puposes that I would not mind taking advantage of are:
1. feed supplement for my turkeys
2. soil improvement for our hog pasture
3. fertilizer for our apple trees

I would like to establish as natural of a system as possible, but I'm handicapped by the free ranging turkeys who will eat the grubs faster than I desire. So, I have an idea that I think might work, but I want some feedback from people who have experience with the life and behaviors of these insects.

The idea is to dig a square hole about 4 inches deep. Build a "top" for the hole to keep the turkeys out of the grubs. The top would be four 1x6 boards and expanded metal on top. The inside of the boards could be lined with card board for laying eggs. Lift the top up to shovel in the manure every day. After a while dig a new hole and move the top to a new location. The eggs would go to the new location with the top. Then bury the undigested manure and let it finish decomposing.

The purpose of doing this in the ground instead of in plastic buckets is to eliminate the need to dump the undigested manure. It would simply get reburied and then finish decomposing and enriching the soil. My understanding is that the grubs will only process about 50 percent of the hog manure.

Any mature grubs that crawl out can be eaten by the turkeys. In addition, the turkeys should scratch up the old locations while looking for grubs. That will speed up the process of decomp.

So, I'd like to hear what problems you foresee with my plan. Will it work? Do I need to make any modifications? Would it be possible to build up a balanced system between the grubs and the turkeys so that there are more grubs than the turkeys could possible eat and then the system would become self-sustaining?

Thanks for any advice or feedback you have to offer.

JoAnn

Hi JoAnn, I love what you're doing at Edens Cove. Glad to have you here and I hope we can help you with BSF.


1 - If you haven't read this study it might have some useful information: http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/waste_mgt/smit ... les/A2.pdf

2 - The repellent effect of BSF larvae is limited to waste that they are dominating. If you have manure with a dense population of BSF larvae other fly species will normally not lay eggs in that specific waste. The repellent effect will not be active in any nearby waste that doesn't contain BSF larvae.


Those seem like reasonable expectations in theory although I only have direct experience using the larvae as poultry feed. We have a few peacocks that are hooked on BSF larvae.


This might be feasible.

IMO you don't need to bother with the cardboard; the BSF will lay eggs on the metal and on the wood. My one concern is that the metal might overheat causing the eggs to die. Even if you have cardboard available I think you will get egg laying on the metal in the cooler parts of the day. In that case you might lose a large number of eggs when the metal heats up mid day. You could either shade the metal or use some type of durable fabric as long as it breathes. BSF females will lay eggs on window screen and the newly hatched larvae will easily drop through it. You could also use the metal because it's durable and cover it with window screen so the eggs aren't directly on the metal. All things considered I think I would favor some type of a shade to keep the direct sun off of the pile. Maybe a simple design that resembles a low table for example. That might also serve to keep the birds out of the pile until you're ready for them.

Keep in mind that when you first relocate the cover the remaining manure will still have a lot of BSF larvae in it of all sizes. I imagine you could bury them lightly but they might not survive if they're too deep or if it's packed too tight. I'm not sure about that but you could experiment.


I think you could possibly find a balance with the turkeys and the BSF. It might take a few seasons but the rewards seem to make it worthwhile to try.

Others may have some suggestions too; the forum is still very new but we have people joining everyday.

I wish I was closer to your farm.

Jerry,
Thanks for your ideas and input. I'm going to stew over them a bit.

In the meantime, something has changed on the farm and I'm reconsidering my plans. Some beetles have begun eating the manure. They are doing an excellent job of decomposing the manure almost completely and leaving behind some nice soil. I'm curious to see if they can keep up with the hogs as our hog population grows this summer. Of course, I have a bucket full of grubs in my kitchen that I got to do something with pretty quickly. I think I"m going to go ahead and set up a bio-pod type system tonight and give some time to see what develops naturally with the beetles. I'll set up the bio-pod near the hogs so that it might repel some of the house flies. So, on to making a bio-pod. Yeah fun.

Thanks for the kind words about our farm. It's exciting and fun, but there are places all over the country like ours popping up. Search around and you may find something really neat right around your city.

Good luck whatever direction you end up going JoAnn.

Keep in mind that the BSF larvae don't repel other species as much as they discourage/prevent them from laying eggs in waste already dominated by the BSF.