Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Here is a video of my new experimental BSF composter/harvester. This is a rampless bucket design.

The objectives, (some of which I failed to mention in the video), listed in order of importance.

1. Deter non-BSF flies from getting to the food source/compost. [So far, this is successful. I observe very few flies around the composter.]

2. Discourage non-BSF flies from laying eggs in the composter. [Still testing this. I will give it a couple of weeks to see how this worked out.]

3. Create an effective self-harvesting pathway for the BSFL to follow without the use of devices to discourage vertical crawling...ie Velcro, 90 degree barriers, etc. [This has proved to be successful. I am getting BSFL in the collection jar daily.]

4. Avoid the use of traditional ramps and tubes. The BSFL do not need to find the ramp in this design. They climb vertically and have no where to go but through the slots that leads to the tubular pathway.

This is an experimental prototype. I am open to suggestions and ideas to better the design.

UPDATE: Just one day after posting this video, I have baby BSFL in the bin. That is a good sign. I also have, however, housefly eggs in the egg laying chamber, (yellow bucket), as well as housefly maggots in the bin.

Clearly flies don't care about getting to the food to lay eggs. This is still a useful application though because there are only a few flies around the bin now. They are unable to get to the food so that greatly reduces their numbers. After the BSF population is well established, hopefully, that will deter the non-BSF flies from laying eggs.

Also, if I check the egg laying chamber everyday, I can destroy the housefly eggs, as I did today. They only need a day or two to hatch so it would need to be done daily but at least I have a fighting chance. If the flies lay in the food...game over.

In the meantime, I at least have solved my immediate problem of swarms of flies around my bins. Late yesterday afternoon I was fighting thousands of flies while I adapted my other bin in a similar fashion. Today, no flies around that bin.