Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

That would be known as a Roly Poly in the USA. Slater... That's kind of a cool name for such a cool bug...

HA!!! Someone else calls them roly poly bugs too! Good.
Sometimes there is a translation issue with Aussies and Americans, but I'm getting there. Thanks for the explanations.

Not gross, nasty, or stomach-turning at all for me. I'm interested in this thread. But then again, I haven't tried it yet... too cold in the USA at the moment. But would like to feed my chickens something other than store-bought feed. That shit has to be bad for them, somehow. It just ain't natural feed. These fly maggots are more like it. Maybe we'll get even more yellow-yolked eggs.
Yellow yolks have higher fat/more nutrients than the pale yellow you buy in the store.

So, question: what does the fat in the maggots do to fish? Does it give a layer of fat on the fish or what? When you bake them or cook them on the barbie, do they taste different than, er, leaner fish? Damn. I'm showing my ignorance again.

Actually I only knew the name roly poly until recently. I always knew they were a crustacean for some reason though... Seeing as how it is a crustacean, maybe it might make a good fish food?



Well, just the thought and look of it is a bit stomach turning... If not in a humorous way. I can just imagine how excited Tony gets every time he sees roadkill! He'll get that all too familiar AP excitement over a dead animal lying in the road... lol I can just imagine the excitement his wife must feel every time he pulled over to pick one up. hehe

I'm anxiously awaiting his results of the conversion ratio. Might try this myself sometime down the road.

At least he put them in the back of the Ute, instead of the cab.

On the way to town, took a good look at that racoon on the edge of the road that was waiting for the buzzards, then took a pass on it... Then looked again on the way back home.
See what AP has done to me?

48 hours later and tonight opening the lid of the Biopod I was literally 'gobsmacked' at the amount of action happening..!!!

A picture does not do justice to the sheer volume of activity... So I'll have to do a video tomorrow because what I saw tonight will put to bed any doubts people might have. With a "Hey hon, you've just GOT to see this", even my wife was duly impressed (standing back at a distance)

But I don't reckon the carcasses are going to last anywhere near the 6 weeks I thought. And there are some MASSIVE maggots already in the collection container..

Well yes I do, but on the way to work this morning we drove past yet another possum on the side of the road. I didn't even say anything and the better half, just looking straight ahead says "don't even think about it"...!

December in USA. Cold even in a southern state like Georgia. The following are two reasons I haven't started my NockyPod yet: And it isn't the wife's critters. Maybe I'll wait a couple of months before fighting the buzzards for the roadkills.

Nocky, how is your pod working? Anything good?

Think you need to move Bill - that's just not right !

Yeah, I could move next door to TCLynx, one state away. Different climate though. Wonder if there any mountains down there? Gotta have my mountains and trees. TCL also has BSFL, so I wouldn't have to wait around for warmer weather to see if they show up here.

Florida is pretty much flat. Full of trees though, dense thick swampy forest.

Well after only 7 days in the Biopod, the carcasses have been reduced by over 50%

So far, 611 grams of maggots have been collected but many more are still swarming around ready to be harvested.

hey i dont know if i missed something but do they crawl into the harvesting part of the biopod once they are ready or do you have to manually take them out?

They are crawling up the ramp and down the hole (in the pic)

I had to stop collecting recently..!

So many were produced I couldn't keep up... They were filling the collection container so fast I had to transfer them into ice cream buckets to let them clean out for a few days, and then ran out of room in the freezer for storage.

A total of 4.321 kilograms of fly maggots were produced....

And 1.5kg went into the compost bin whilst another 1kg are coming fishing with me on the West Coast over the next few days.

The wife doesn't know they have been packed into the trailer hidden in some screw top plastic containers....

Over the next week or two I will sit down and do all the figures....

Wow, that's alot. Keep us posted on the numbers.

That's a lot of maggots! Gotta love free protein. Do you have any other ideas for a cleaning medium that could be used, preferably something that could be sourced for free? Perhaps dry sawdust would be a good choice?

Just trying to think out loud here to add to the discussion.