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Black Soldier fly larvae
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Posted by pjames 8/LA (My Page) on Wed, Jul 15, 09 at 17:00
| I was wondering if anybody knows if mature BSF larvae continue to eat while they look for a place to pupate. I have maybe 50 black very active larvae trying to climb out of the bedding. Light will drive them back and conditions in the bedding are fine with large numbers of immature larvae present. The numbers of black larvae are increasing.
I know they are not able to pupate inside the bin. I have not seen a single adult fly in the garage or in the bin when i remove the lid. The lid fits tight enough to prevent any escape. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Black Soldier fly larvae
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| They get dark when they are ready to go off to find a good place to hide away while they pupate. They evacuate their digestive systems before they crawl away and do not continue to eat. Guess they don't like to go to bed on a full stomach. |
RE: Black Soldier fly larvae
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Here is a link that might be useful: Black Soldier Fly
RE: Black Soldier fly larvae
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| I have EFs and BSFLs in the same box in my garage. Without a lid on the box they can fly off, mate and come back to the box to lay the eggs. This works great. http://s682.photobucket.com/albums/vv188/steamyb/Worm%20Bin/ |
RE: Black Soldier fly larvae
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| Well, my verdict is BSF are unsuitable for inside bins. I had hoped to be able to retard the pupation process. It seems that the mature larvae are just too active and I can't have them escape, pupate and have mature flies in the house. It is far too hot here (around 100) to keep my worms in my garage so I have moved then indoors. The BSF larvae are thriving in the hot environment. I certainly don't want hundreds of adult BSF's in my closed garage either. They wouldn't be flying off and mating, they'd be littering the floor with dead flies. It's not worth the effort to separate the semi-processed larvae bedding to feed the worms. I can't risk missing a few maggots and have them turn into flies in the house. My wife would end my worm project then and there.. |
RE: Black Soldier fly larvae
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| steamyb, Great pics of your bin. kind of iky, really but I'm still getting used to the way it looks. lol I was wondering about the watermelon. Do the worms eat the whole thing? If not, when do you take the rind out? How do you know when they are done with it? Also, does anybody know if potato skin is good worm food? Thanks! Sandra |
RE: Black Soldier fly larvae
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| They'll eat the whole watermelon, rind and all (worms I mean, BSFL may not). The rind does take a little longer but I am not sure exactly how long, some time less than a month in my bin. I use a kitchen knife to rough chop the rinds before putting them in the bin, chopping seems to help most items that take longer to decompose. Potato skin should be fine but will also take longer, root and other underground plant parts naturally have some resistance to decay but once the plant cells are dead they break down. Chopping up is a good idea for that too. |
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