Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I've been looking through as much as I can find regarding the production of black soldier fly larvae but cant see anything about using house/blow fly larvae as food.
Anyone used these?
I only gave it a thought because 50 years ago back in jolly old blighty I used to produce maggots for fishing and it was very easy.
A mash of scalded oats, chopped liver, milk and something else I've forgotten. (probably fish)
They appeared very fast and grew fast as well.
The smell was negligible, barely knew it was there.
Hmm, a fly trap that lets them lay but not escape sounds like a goodun. A use for a nuisance maybe.

How did you used to harvest them?

I hear bsf larvae are good because they crawl up a ramp and out of the goop when they're mature.

IIRC they just crawled out the container but we may have just riddled them out, so long ago I cant fully remember.

People have been successful with housefly maggots. The thing to remember is that they are not sanitary. Adult houseflies crawl all over fecal matter. Black soldier flies avoid it.

I cannot believe I forgot that I taught the subject long enough DOH!
Its interesting to know that live blow fly maggots are used in wound cleaning but those are bred from a sterile source.
I wonder how they sterilise the original flys then do the same for the maggots.
The egg contents are sterile but the outer case isnt.
Thinking outside the box here.
The eggs would possibly have strep, staph and e.coli at the least so if the eggs are collected and sterilised to kill those pathogens then introduced into sterile food source they would produce clean maggots. Then if some of those maggots were then allowed to hatch and re-lay this should give a clean source.
Run the process in a sealed system for a continuous supply of protein rich maggots for the fishes.

How common are black soldier fly in Townsville North Queensland?

BSF larvae have either a 40% or 60% fat content which is not good for the fish. It has been awhile since I researched them. They are easy to grow and grow crazy fast but are not an ideal feed for fish. Chickens love them.

With Maggots all I have to say is yuk. I would also assume they may have a fat content in them as well but maybe not as much as BSF. You may be better off trying something different.

Not good as the only source of food. But as a supplement, great.

All you would need do is modify the common blowfly traps you can get at Bunnings to a bottomless vessel and fix it to a float module. Maybe even fixed to the side of your tank as fish will hit the maggots or flies which happen to fall on the water surface (inside the trap). Flies are an amazing untapped resource.

A sheep can die here and within 3-4 days it is a writhing mass of maggots. No reason scrap meat can't be used to attract a steady stream of flies.