You can purchase anything on eBay. I purchased 2500 black soldier fly larvae (from here on out referred to as BSFL) in September. Here is a photo of the bin Dad and I built in June.
And then I started feeding them on September 30. It started slowly with coffee grounds and some odds and ends of food scraps: tomato pieces, apple, popcorn, noodles, bread, cream cheese. The larvae kept growing so I increased food from 1 pound to 2 pounds a day. They are mesmerizing to watch, if not a little disgusting. And they sound like rice crispies after you pour milk on them. Weird, right?
By October 19, I was concerned about the health of the bin. Here is what I wrote in my log: "BAD odor; attempted to sift larvae from residue with little success; removed all contents and placed a bed of crumpled newspaper on bottom layer with screening on top; too much moisture; afraid some larvae have suffocated; took off end door and have left fan running in attempt to dry out the bin; gave some residue to worms; this is a gross day."
I distinctly remember using that grinning trick to suppress the gag reflex (which I learned on the show C.S.I. a hundred years ago). The odor was something I had never smelled before, and I'd like to never smell it again. The newspaper worked great to absorb the effluent. Keeping the larvae above the screen was impossible. I'd have to scoop up handfuls of them in the newspaper wads and dump them back into the food. I was getting crawl off (larvae ready to find dirt to change into the fly) at that point. (Stay posted for the crawl off saga.)
I did have to set up an incandescent light directly underneath the bin for warmth when the nights cooled off. I also would forget that the light was on and during the day the bin got too warm, creating a massive crawl off. The larvae will escape any way they can through any small crack they can find. And they did. Hundreds of them were all over the garage floor. They circumvented the ramps altogether and went for any teeny opening they could find on the doors. I had to sweep them up with a broom and dustpan. They were dumped back into the bin, but an hour later there was another mass crawl off.
Once the weather got cold, the larvae slowed down significantly. I couldn't feed them as much. Then in December the temp dropped to 4 degrees for a span of a few days. There wasn't an efficient way for me to heat the bin. At that point, there was about a quarter of the larvae left. It was easiest to just shut it down and figure out the prepupae situation. Because it was a situation.
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| Me standing next to the finished product |
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| This shows the ramps that the crawl off will utilize when continuing on to their next life stage |
And then I started feeding them on September 30. It started slowly with coffee grounds and some odds and ends of food scraps: tomato pieces, apple, popcorn, noodles, bread, cream cheese. The larvae kept growing so I increased food from 1 pound to 2 pounds a day. They are mesmerizing to watch, if not a little disgusting. And they sound like rice crispies after you pour milk on them. Weird, right?
By October 19, I was concerned about the health of the bin. Here is what I wrote in my log: "BAD odor; attempted to sift larvae from residue with little success; removed all contents and placed a bed of crumpled newspaper on bottom layer with screening on top; too much moisture; afraid some larvae have suffocated; took off end door and have left fan running in attempt to dry out the bin; gave some residue to worms; this is a gross day."
I distinctly remember using that grinning trick to suppress the gag reflex (which I learned on the show C.S.I. a hundred years ago). The odor was something I had never smelled before, and I'd like to never smell it again. The newspaper worked great to absorb the effluent. Keeping the larvae above the screen was impossible. I'd have to scoop up handfuls of them in the newspaper wads and dump them back into the food. I was getting crawl off (larvae ready to find dirt to change into the fly) at that point. (Stay posted for the crawl off saga.)
I did have to set up an incandescent light directly underneath the bin for warmth when the nights cooled off. I also would forget that the light was on and during the day the bin got too warm, creating a massive crawl off. The larvae will escape any way they can through any small crack they can find. And they did. Hundreds of them were all over the garage floor. They circumvented the ramps altogether and went for any teeny opening they could find on the doors. I had to sweep them up with a broom and dustpan. They were dumped back into the bin, but an hour later there was another mass crawl off.
Once the weather got cold, the larvae slowed down significantly. I couldn't feed them as much. Then in December the temp dropped to 4 degrees for a span of a few days. There wasn't an efficient way for me to heat the bin. At that point, there was about a quarter of the larvae left. It was easiest to just shut it down and figure out the prepupae situation. Because it was a situation.
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| Bonus helper dog photo for reading all the way to the end |
It's good to see that Marles is still In Charge.
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