I'm happy to see black soldier flies in my compost, especially since I have chickens to feed.
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/crea...

I first found them after getting a few pounds of coffee grounds from a coffee place. But now they do return every year. They very quickly process kitchen waste. You may never notice the adults at all. What you may notice is those clouds of fungus gnats disappear because the BSF eat the waste so fast. Once the BSF take over, I never notice houseflies or fungus gnats at all.

A downside to some is, they eat so fast, the compost becomes sludgy and too hot for worms. And don't poke around in the compost if the sight of wriggling maggots makes you queasy. But if you want to dump a lot of kitchen waste and have it disappear, BSF are your friends.

The BSF are at work now. Chickens love to find them.
There are lots of different style plans for growing and harvesting the mature larvae. Some simple, some complicated. One big feature is collecting the mature larvae. By letting the BSF eat til maturity, your chickens get the most 'bang' for the buck. But I didn't want to get complicated if simple will do.
The mature larvae exit the food source during the night, they say.. But how far do they go? I wondered if they would just crawl a short distance and then take shelter where the chickens would find them later..

I made a perforated 5 gal bucket with random placed 1/2 or 3/4 inch holes on the sides. I tilted the bucket and set it in a tub. And I also have a heavy duty large nursery pot with holes on the bottom edge. Both got some compost and food scraps the BSF would like. This morning, I found that a few dozen larvae had exited the bucket and fell into the tub and got caught. Those are easy to throw to the chickens. With the right size tub, the chickens could learn to look for the BSF each morning. Also, when I moved the tub, another dozen or so larva had just collected under it- escaped through a hole in the tub.

So, I think this shows you may not need a complicated set-up if you want to grow BSF for your chickens.

It's amazing how active Hermetia illucens larvae are, and how quickly they consume down materials.

Between chickens and BDF, It's hard to have enough food waste. The chickens got cantalope rinds and seeds yesterday, ate it down to just the thin skin.

I found this set up idea which seems to me a good balance of easy, cheap, and gives you a collection container protected from rain. Can't deny there is satisfaction in seeing if it is producing or not. This seems a good size for modest amounts of kitchen waste.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

There's a ton of research being done on Hermetia on a commercial scale. And a video of a guy (NWRedworms) who seems obsessed to the nth degree with growing them and seemed NOT to have a clue what to do with them after, except saying he'd give a few to the chickens.

The adult flies are attractive insects if you like bugs in general. If you don't like bugs they probably will invoke the heebiejeebie response.

Have you ever seen the video where someone put a cooked pizza on top of a pizza box, then put the box on the surface of a very densely populated bin of fly larvae? The response reminded me of a massive zombie horde attack. Hahaha

I agree, the adults are cute as insects go, and completely inoffensive. You hardly ever see them in the normal backyard. I know I have lots of larvae of either black or yellow, and hardly ever see an adult.
The videos are eye-popping!

Hello guys and gals im new to this forum and id like to say hello, im from texas and into black soilder fly composting, i have chickens and they love them , also collect bsfl and make insect frass which i great for our plants, in addition to the bsfl composting i add biochar to my bins and produce great compost for my plants, im no guru but have been breeding for a while so excited i found others with this passion heres a couple pics




Dried bsfl ready to be made insect frass







In a 3×3 bin lots of healthy larvae



Finished compost, have a wonderful afternoon everyone

https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogco...

Here's one I caught this morning , she's a beauty

What a lot of BSF!
I cannot get enough compost material to keep ahead of them and build up the numbers. Things like cantalope and watermelon waste, the chickens want too. I hoped to process manure with them but they don't seem to like it that much, or it was just too rainy while I was setting it up. It got really sludgy.

They love manure, especially fresh not hard, i get acces fruit and vegetables from a church food drive, sumtimes it goes bad and i go and collect it,ive had pallets full and give sum to the hogs, hard manure makes great egg laying surfaces, wet rainy weather isn't there favorite, a shelter from the rain would keep them happy and active

I always thought "build it and they will come." I've got compost and manure pits all over the yard, and have never seen one. I thought about buying some (not sure where,) but I don't like the idea of shipping live bugs.

here's a supplier in WA
https://www.northwestredworms....

Here's is a map where they have been located in the wild all over the US



Here's a photo of bsf eggs 🥚


They love hard dog poop as a laying platform, try and keep your eggs dry and moist material under so when larvae hatch the fall directly into moist food and get to eating , have a blessed day everyone

I've read the adults are quite attracted to rotting fruit.

plus I would much rather handle rotting fruit than manure

sallyg said:plus I would much rather handle rotting fruit than manure

I would venture to guess, you've never had a rotten watermelon explode on you.

Nope! Must be really awful!

Haha, yes rotten watermelon is foul, but a very good way to attract them. Any rotten fruit of veggies will do the trick

Eagerly awaiting the BSF for the summer. Still have loads of gnats, and it has been a cool spring.
My first sighting of them ever was a big batch of coffee grounds.