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We just built two Black Solder Fly Larvae (BSFL) compost bins. One was made in accordance to specifications given to us by Olivier Crusoe, who runs an off-grid organic farm, about 1.5 hours from Battambang. I constructed the other, from a combination of images I found on the internet. Both types of construction will work, I imagine. I just want to try to guarantee a strong growth of BSF in this area. They are a very beneficial insect. They are also free protein for both fish and chickens. In my case, I can raise them, along with Duckweed, using both to feed my fish. It will, literally, cost me nothing to feed my fish. Here are those images now: Compost Bin 1: Concrete, Brick & Mortar Construction Information: The concrete, brick & mortar compost bin, you will see, has a moat around the perimeter of the group. This is to hold water, preventing ants from getting to the larvae and eating them. I still have to add a few small parts to complete this build. But, it is basically complete. Compost Bin 2: Plastic & PVC Construction This second compost bin didn't work out so well. And, the loop fasteners didn't work as intended, either. My suggestion, after having been successful at one complete life cycle of these flies (eggs are inside the compost bin now), is to go with option 1, above. Information: The hook fastener material is siliconed around the inside perimeter, to prevent the larvae from climbing out of the bin prior to maturity. The two ramps lead to two attached milk cartons, where the larvae will crawl up, once they have matured.

I took a video this morning. If you look at this image, you will see the white maggots, which were houseflies. I posted in the past that they were long gone. This short (45 seconds) video shows that, as well as our little friends self-harvesting. I hope the larvae reproduce as well, once we start a colony of them at the farm.

We had several of the adults to emerge from their shells today. We also added more larvae to the buckets we made for them to safely go through their pupa stage.I look forward to seeing more emerge in the coming days. As a side note, the compost bin is now "house fly free" of house fly maggots (the small slender white ones). They are no longer present in the composter. Only Black Soldier Fly Larvae are working in the compost bin. So, the BSFL are already doing their jobs!

The little guys dig in pretty quick!

Reference Websites: http://dailydump.org/learn/troubleshooting.html#BSF BSFL Compost Bin Black Soldier Fly Larvae Online Forums: http://www.blacksoldierflyfarming.com/forum/index http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/forum/ YouTube: Living Web Farms NWRedworms