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 them by lessening the amount of food scraps that I introduced into the unit, and that is what I’m doing currently.
BSF larvae can eat almost anything
BSF larvae will consume almost anything organic except high cellulose materials like woody stems and grasses. They will quickly eat just about anything that has available calories including food waste that would probably be toxic to humans, like decomposing fish for example. The fact that they are able to efficiently digest such a wide range of material is what makes BSF larvae such a powerful tool for processing waste.
About those decomposing fish…
I help my neighbor manage the small pond behind his house. Recently several of his fish died and I did him the favor of removing them a few days after they floated to the surface. The fish weighed about 5 pounds (2.3 Kg) total and by the time I removed them they were already very stinky. Instead of disposing of them like a normal person I decided to see how quickly my BSF would process them. I’m happy to report that my small colony completely consumed the fish within about 2 days. I am unhappy to report that after I added the decomposing fish to my BSF unit it began attracting blow flies and house flies.
Black soldier fly larvae produce an info-chemical that repels pest flies, but there are limits as this test illustrates. The odor of these decaying fish was a powerful attractant to undesirable flies and it overpowered the repellent properties that are normally very effective in a BioPod.
I’m currently using a homemade BSF unit (not any more!) because BioPods are not yet available. My homemade unit is a less efficient design and I’m sure that this made my recent problem worse than it would have been. My unit doesn’t deal with liquids as well as a BioPod so the problem was less contained than it would have been with the commercial product. I will be happy when the first BioPods arrive.
And now the good news
Even the extreme imbalance created by adding these decaying fish to my colony can be corrected with a little time and care. Of course I’m more cautious about sanitation while the pest flies are present, but in reality I don’t need to do much other than stop feeding the colony and let the other flies cycle through. It’s now been about 5 days since I added the fish and my colony is almost back to a balanced state again.
You can avoid this type of problem easily
My test with the decayed fish was something that most people wound not have tried, but I’m involved in testing the limits of this technology. If you use BSF larvae to process your normal household food scraps it’s very unlikely that you’ll experience anything like the crash I just created. You can even add food that is quite spoiled and you shouldn’t have a problem like my recent experience.
Comments 10
I love the Hindenburg photo. (big grin)
So glad to hear that the colony can quickly rebalance itself. I know that I would have tossed the rotting fish in the bin too just to see what would happen.
Now this makes me wonder if this would even have been an issue in a BioPod. Any idea when they will start shipping? I know when I called them they said they had just received their first shipment.
I still wonder how one would harvest the larvae’s droppings without having to dump the whole bin. That will be my experiment when I get my colony going.
Posted 27 Jun 2008 at 5:29 pm ¶Thanks Barbara. I think I’ve run into some miscommunication with ProtaCulture about this first delivery. I correspond fairly often with Dr. Olivier who created the BioPod so I’m sure I can get it straightened out quickly.
I’m also curious about the best way to separate the compost from the larvae. Let’s compare notes later on.
Posted 27 Jun 2008 at 5:53 pm ¶Hi Jerry,
I am utterly amazed at the potential for waste management that these little guys hold. I was thinking about setting up a colony here in Chicago and was wondering if they would be present in my area. Thanks for this wonderful blog!
Posted 27 Jun 2008 at 7:17 pm ¶Well thank you Aaron, I’m really enjoying the blogging experience and I’m glad that you’ve discovered BSF. I’m very grateful to Dr. Olivier and Dr. Sheppard for their hard work researching and developing black soldier fly technology.
One of the things I know least about BSF is their current range. I believe their native range is centered in the southeast, but I’ve read that they can be found on most of the continent. If you want to culture BSF it can always be accomplished by seeding the area where you wish to keep them.
Posted 27 Jun 2008 at 8:45 pm ¶I’m very interested in a discussion on how to harvest the larvae from a compost pile. There is a very brief mention of a collection system here: http://solarwayfarm.com/photo4
I’d love to build my own contraption to dump them into a bucket to feed to my chickens ( http://www.nifty-stuff.com/new-chickens.php ) Any ideas on how to get the grubs to migrate from the compost pile into another container?
Posted 04 Jul 2008 at 1:19 pm ¶I think the simple way is to have a unit expressly for raising BSFL. There would be other advantages besides easy collection, such as a way to “compost” meat, dairy, citrus, and almost anything organic except grasses.
I don’t have a great design for a homemade BSF unit but you can use almost any covered container with an exit ramp. For a few reasons my focus is on promoting the BioPod by ESR/ProtaCulture. It was designed and tested by Dr. Paul Olivier, one of the leading authorities on BSF technology, and I doubt that most people could build a unit that will function as efficiently.
Considering the effort that went into the BioPod I believe the price is very reasonable. (I recently bought a Rubbermaid garden cart for the same price as a BioPod.) Also ESR/ProtaCulture is a model company and deserves to prosper. I recommend taking a look at the ESR website, I think you will be impressed.
Posted 04 Jul 2008 at 2:35 pm ¶question: I’m new to home worm composting. I have a Can o’ Worms that’s about 2 months along and seems to be doing well.
Yesterday, I found ~lots~ of what I think are the pupa of the black soldier fly. At least, they look a lot like your photos. But, I don’t see any that wriggle around.
I wonder how they got there?
Can they just live out their life cycle in the worm bin? There is no opening in the Can o Worms for the adult soldier flies to get out.
The BioPod seems like an amazing product. Now I wish I’d bought that instead of the Can o’ Worms.
Posted 20 Aug 2008 at 12:21 am ¶Hi teel,
I can only assume that the BSF were present in your worm bin for a few weeks and you just didn’t notice them. They would go where the food scraps were and I’m guessing they were buried.
Normally the dark brown mature BSF larvae would crawl away from the food source to pupate. Since they couldn’t exit your bin they must have just pupated and in that stage they look pretty much the same, just stiff. It’s very unlikely that they will be able to mate in your worm bin after they emerge as adults.
BioPods and BSF are great, but so are worms. Why not enjoy your worms until you have some extra money to spend on a BioPod. If you’re handy you could always build your own version of a BioPod like I did before they were available. My homemade unit isn’t nearly as efficient as my BioPod but I was still able to culture BSF with it.
Posted 20 Aug 2008 at 7:15 pm ¶Thanks for your moments and encouragement! Most, not all, of the pupa are rather light colored not dark, so I’m hoping these aren’t something else that’s undesireable. I’ll email a photo of the pupa.
Posted 21 Aug 2008 at 12:02 pm ¶The light colored stage of the BSF larvae are usually actively feeding. I believe they slow down for a short time just before they shed their skin when growing. I will sometimes see a few idle larvae among thousands of active ones so you have a bit of a puzzle there teel. Maybe the photo will help.
Posted 21 Aug 2008 at 3:13 pm ¶Post a Comment