Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I found that things got even faster when I placed an empty tray upside down over the ramp. BSF larvae don't like light so they travel toward the dark......and up the ramp.

Good one - may be easier than replicating one of the circumference ramps.

That is amazing gary.... you could have your own BSF circus. Will they do trapeze? What you need is a little tarzan rope......

How fast do they move? How long did all those larvae take to grow?

Hi Tim,

BSF Larvae take from 2 weeks to 6 months to pass through the five stages to become a Soldier Fly.......based on the availability of food and the ambient temperature.

At the moment, they have access to plenty of food (in our compost bin) and the weather is right for them.....so 2 - 3 weeks would be my guess.

They move along quite quickly.......about 5 - 10 minutes to travel up the ramp.

They are amazing. The more I understand about them, the more I'm determined to make them a feature of our integrated food production system. This is 'no fuss' bush tucker for fish, quail, chickens, ducks, etc.

Gary

I've been refining the BSF larvae harvesting arrangment.

I cut a slot in one end of the plastic tray (660mm long x 330mm wide x 120mm deep).......and rested the tray on another tray.....so that the container for the larvae and the ramp are one in the same.

The angle of the ramp is about 30 degrees so the larvae cover the 600mm (2 feet) in under a minute....and then jump into the bottom tray.

While this is only a table top unit, it would be easy to make a larger one.

Ideally, the container for the manure/vegetable scraps and the ramp would all be the same unit. The only two task to be undertaken then would be to place food scraps and manure into the unit and to harvest the larvae at the other end.

Love the one perched on the side waiting to fall to his demise.

lemmings

Overnight, I completed the cleaning of my BSF larvae and, this morning, I put the last of them into the freezer.

For the past week, I've been feeding the larvae out to my fish. I put my original haul into small containers with some bran but I discovered that there was extra work in packaging them up. Over a period of days in the plastic containers they began to develop a strong ammonia smell and they continued to shed their skins as they progressed through the various stages of becoming flies.

I've been feeding frozen larvae for the past couple of days. The fish eat them with relish and I avoid all of the mess caused by the bran and skin shedding......and they now have no ammonia odour. They don't need to be thawed before feeding......the fish eat them just as they come out of the freezer.

I've replicated this post in my own thread "Gary's System."

My next challenge is to build a larger composting unit designed especially for Soldier Flies......complete with harvesting ramps and collection bottles.

So the larvae move up the ramp in search of food once it has all been consumed?

You have done a great job Garry, designing something that many would spend the time with.

You could include a frezer unit in the collection tray, and a self feeding mechanism to the fish pond in you new design

Hi Asitis,

The larvae make their way up the ramp after they have completed their final pre-pupae stage. Prior to making the trip up the ramp, they empty their gut in readiness for their transformation into flies.

Following their final larval stage, they no longer have mouth parts and they will never eat again. The flies only live for 5 - 8 days.....with the sole purpose of finding a mate so that the female can lay more eggs.

I'm quite happy to walk the tray from my bench to the freezer.....and to feed the larvae to my fish......it's the least I can do, given that the BSF larvae has done the rest.

Gary

I've been watching my compost bin for the past week and tonight I found more soldier fly larvae......scooped up about 40 litres of the rotting vegetation and its inhabitants.

I've set up my little harvesting tray overnight in the hope that this lot will march straight into the 'clean' tray.

Over the weekend, I harvested more BSF larvae.

Here BSF Larvae Harvester.....Mark II.

I trialled it overnight and it works well. I think I know enough now to make a full-sized unit that can remain outside. We'll be able to dump our kitchen scraps into it and harvest the larvae without becoming 'hands on' with the compost.

Slick!

Every time I see pics of your BSF, I'm both repulsed and fascinated. Kinda like a car wreck--you just have to look. That's great that you are able to produce such a ready supply of food for the fish.