Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi All

It strikes me that road kill is often not in short supply and that the fish would love the maggots. Just a matter of setting it up so that the smell is contained and the maggots aren't

Why save it for the fish? Just kidding...but seriously there was a program on last night about the road kill festival in West Virginia. They have the roadkill cookoff where if I understood it correct, every animal is checked to make sure it was not shot and indeed roadkill.

Really!

http://www.2camels.com/roadkill-cook-off.php

Around here roadkill don't last long though. The Turkey Buzzards fly in and clean it up at first wiff of rotting flesh.

Mark

ANd herein, I think, lies the problem. You need the smell to get the flies there, but then you don't want the smell when you're around. Well I guess a simple solution might be to get a REALLY BIG FAN setup on a motion detector so that anytime a human comes near it blows the smell the other way. But I really think you'd be fighting a losing battle.

If you lived on a farm maybe it wouldn't be so bad. But I have neibours and with those kind of smells I think I'd have the police knocking.

Maggots grow really well in s lightly salted skin. The skin tends nor to stink like rotting flesh will. Plus it can be unfolded and the maggots scraped off.

Yeah, I forgot about a pelt I was planning on curing one day.

Hey Kuda.

So how is that done then? We have absolutely no shortage of roadkill possums and wallabys every day here. I have just made up a hanging basket type arrangement above the tank (I'll post some pics shortly under my system) and was thinking about picking up the odd dead squished furry critter..

ATM I have some fish frames in there and maggots are going ballistic.. Also fish are jumping after the flys.

Though I have lost 3 recently that jumped clean out of the tank.. 3 feet to clear the rim..! So netting is now over it..

I'm wondering though if anyone knows if wild life parasites and any bacteria can be transferred from maggots into the fish?

Cheers

T

that's a scary thought... the maggots being carriers of disease.... for that alone I wouldn't touch the roadkills.

I have read that in the U.K some koi keepers (also keen hunters) hang the carcass or skins of their kills over the ponds. Once the fly eggs hatch, larvae fall into the ponds feeding the fish.

Pig's head over your favourite secluded river fishing spot... three days later... party time!

Well yeh. I'm not sure if the maggots digestion by its very nature will kill off any bacteria or parasites. I'll need to research that one..
But below is my hanging carrier I made the other day.. Put some fish frames and banana skins in it and as you can see, maggots galore..

I like it.

I like the idea...I guess they got to lay there eggs some where .... but I dont know if i`d like the smell

In answer to your question http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=8531&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Well...
1. get a critter.
2. Skin that critter (don't worry about leaving fleshy bits on the skin, the maggots love it.
3. sprinkle salt on the flesh side to preserve it.
4. fold the hide once, with fur on the outside.
5. Leave it in a dry corner out of the way. Maybe put it in a plastic bag.
6. Forget about it.
7. Discover it a week later with half inch maggots all over it.

The fur will look almost exactly as you left it. It will have very little smell.
Open the fur, and the smell will increase marginally.
shake out the maggots.