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Post by vermiman on Sept 14, 2008 15:35:40 GMT -5
I'm new here. I raise a few worms and have a small garden. This year I've also been raising black soldier fly larvae (maggots  but not the same as house fly maggots). |
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jason
gardener
Posts: 246
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Post by jason on Sept 14, 2008 16:56:52 GMT -5
Hey vermiman,
Glad you made it here.
Why do you raise soldier fly larvae? Getting an army of flies together soon?
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Post by vermiman on Sept 14, 2008 17:53:53 GMT -5
I have a sterlite tote under a rabbit cage that I keep to collect the rabbit poo. One day when I was about to feed the collection to my worms I noticed waves in the tote. Since then I have added food waste to the bin. Yesterday I added two whole thawed out frozen pizzas and by this morning it was all gone. The larvae are very fast at consuming food waste including meats and cheese.
The prepupae larvae aka phoenix worms can be used to feed animal such as birds, chickens, frogs, turtles, fish(bait) and probably many others. The fly does not spread disease like the dreaded house fly because they only live a few days to breed and then die. They have no workable mouthparts.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Sept 14, 2008 19:06:27 GMT -5
Welcome to HG, Vermiman.
That's an interesting observation with the soldier flies in your rabbit manure. Are you going to raise them just to compost the manure or will you be using them as a feedsource for say, chickens?
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Post by vermiman on Sept 14, 2008 19:25:15 GMT -5
I don't have a BioPod which makes harvesting the prepupae very easy. I plan on using them to fish with. Next spring, if I can get them to come back as good, I may try raising chickens. The finished product of the waste is about 5% in weight compared to the waste that is added. And that is suppose to be superior food for worms. I'll be sure not to add allot of this stuff to my worm bins at first.
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Post by lavandulagirl on Sept 14, 2008 22:29:48 GMT -5
That's really interesting... do you have to feed them scraps, or pizza like you did, if you keep them in a bin, or would they survive well on regular garden detritus?
Glad you found the site.
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Post by vermiman on Sept 14, 2008 22:53:31 GMT -5
They are in a sterlite tote which is the same thing that I use for worm bins. There's an abundance of detritus that they can be fed. There are a few items that they eat slowly and some that they consume very quickly.
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Post by canadamike on Sept 15, 2008 2:09:54 GMT -5
So, apparently, they are pizza lovers. They wouldn't be alone ;D
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Post by lavandulagirl on Sept 15, 2008 7:40:34 GMT -5
Sterilite totes are my new favorite household item... we used them as luggage on the trip cross country, and now one is being used as a chicken brooder. Worm bin will probably be next on my list! 
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Post by vermiman on Sept 15, 2008 9:49:11 GMT -5
So, apparently, they are pizza lovers. They wouldn't be alone ;D Yes, I think so. When I put the pizza in, they left the watermelon rinds they were working on and devoured the pizza. The pizza was uncooked. |
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Post by canadamike on Sept 15, 2008 12:19:34 GMT -5
So ther prefer meat!! That is a very good thing. I used to have a meat digester, but I'd rather have these kind of scraps eaten and transformed into compost than throwing them were they'll never be put tu use. I used to vermicompost a lot. But we move often, the habit got lost.Now, in the new house where I move in 2 weeks, I have a long cold storage built with some room for it. Are these larvaes available somewhere? Do we have to grow our owns?? How did you put your hands on them.
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Post by johno on Sept 15, 2008 12:28:12 GMT -5
Up until last year, my father had a small commercial rabbitry. Soldier flies and red worms appeared naturally in the manure beneath the cages. Red worms are great, but it was obvious that the soldier flies were much faster at decomposing the manure. We never tried feeding them pizza, though...
Welcome to HG!
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Post by vermiman on Sept 15, 2008 12:46:01 GMT -5
So ther prefer meat!! That is a very good thing. I used to have a meat digester, but I'd rather have these kind of scraps eaten and transformed into compost than throwing them were they'll never be put tu use. I used to vermicompost a lot. But we move often, the habit got lost.Now, in the new house where I move in 2 weeks, I have a long cold storage built with some room for it. Are these larvaes available somewhere? Do we have to grow our owns?? How did you put your hands on them. The larvae are commercially available as phoenix worms or soldier grubs. Some people that sell the BioPod offer a starter culture of larvae. It may be too close to winter to get them started up in Canada. Here's some good info about them: www.esrla.com/brazil/frame.htm |
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Post by ottawagardener on Oct 21, 2008 20:40:07 GMT -5
I just wanted to say hi. CanadaMike kindly responded to a blog post of mine - guess there's another garden geek in the neighbourhood ;-) and I thought I'd come and check out this forum.
I'm a urban garden (read small plot) that is interested in permaculture lite, edible landscaping and native plants.
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Post by lavandulagirl on Oct 21, 2008 21:02:11 GMT -5
Welcome Ottawagardener! And don't worry, we won't judge you just because Michel got you here...  Have you posted a link to your blog?
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but not the same as house fly maggots). 
Have you posted a link to your blog?