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Tag Archives: food scraps

Attracting black soldier flies with corn

Once the BSF are established the result is a nearly odor-free process, but in the beginning it’s best to have a strong odor so the females can locate the unit. I like using fermented corn because even though it has a strong odor I don’t find it as offensive as most rotting food. It’s not a smell that I necessarily like, but it’s one I can live with during the set up phase and once I’ve got a dense colony I can go back to the normal, mild and pleasant odor of a balanced BSF composter.

Posted 28 April 2010 † Jerry § Establishing a new colony ‡ Comments (9) ° Also tagged: ,

refreshing the colony

Starting my third year with the black soldier fly I’m going into this season with a small colony made up of grubs that were laid last fall. Where I live the winters are mild so it was fairly easy to maintain the colony through the cool months. At the end of last summer my BioPod [...]

Posted 03 May 2009 † Jerry § Raising black soldier fly larvae § The BioPod § Vermiculture and BSF composting ‡ Comments (9) ° Also tagged: , , , , ,

Trial and Error – Starting My First BSF Colony

I put out my first bucket of food scraps to attract black soldier flies in the spring of 2007. I soon observed the adult flies laying eggs in my bucket so I assumed that in a few days I would see larvae. The literature I’ve read states that BSF eggs will hatch in roughly 100 [...]

Posted 24 May 2008 † Jerry § My first year raising BSF ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: ,

My First Attempt to Attract Black Soldier Flies – May 2007

As soon as I realized that black soldier flies were present around my home I put some food scraps into a bucket with a lid and cut a few small holes into the sides. BSF will crawl through a small opening to access a food source for their eggs. They don’t eat in their winged [...]

Posted 24 May 2008 † Jerry § My first year raising BSF ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: