200lt plastic drum, on an angle(old car ramp). 20lt plastic bucket with bottom cut off. Use the removed circle as a stencil to mark and cut out a tight bucket shaped hole. Light a bundle of grass/paper and swirl the flame around the cut edge of the drum to soften it, then jam in your bottomless bucket. This ensures a nice tight fit.
Attach a harvest pipe(stand from broken fan) to lid and on the inside attach a bundle of cloth/paper/shadecloth so the Black soldier flies can use it as a climbing ramp.
That’s it. How it works is you fill it with whatever compost you have at the time(+ a bucket of water). Vegetable trimmings, weeds, meat, bones, manure, onions, citrus, buckets of dead cane toads, road kill, pretty much everything that was once alive is great Black soldier flies food.
Black soldier flies like it too wet for any other species and as they feed they churn the sludge drowning then eating any other pest fly species. Anything that enters just becomes more food for the Black soldier flies.
Once the Black soldier flies mature, instinct kicks in and they head for the light. Up the climbing the ramp, down the tube, and at that point the chooks and ducks smash them as they drop out the end all day long. These free high protein nutrient dense critters make great eggs with beautiful yolks and your reducing landfill waste at the same time.
You can also hang a bucket underneath(rub a smear of vegetable oil around the rim). The bucket fills during the day as the Black soldier flies auto-harvest themselves and you can then take them away to feed your lizards, fish, poultry etc.
As adults the Black soldier flies do look a lot like a wasp but they have no real mouth parts and CAN NOT BITE.
At that stage they just fly around looking for a mate, and then later a nice place to lay their eggs. The cloth/paper/shade cloth climbing ramp inside the Black soldier flies farm is the ideal spot and they have no trouble finding it.
I am not sure how close you are to one, but you can probably go to the local reptile store and sell those to the herp folk. Look up prices on these online, you might be able to make a good chunk of money over the weekend if you have too many around. These are excellent feeders, as you probably know.
apple-masher
Sometimes, the light at the end of the tunnel actually leads the hungry beak of a chicken.
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200lt plastic drum, on an angle(old car ramp).
20lt plastic bucket with bottom cut off.
Use the removed circle as a stencil to mark and cut out a tight bucket shaped hole.
Light a bundle of grass/paper and swirl the flame around the cut edge of the drum to soften it, then jam in your bottomless bucket. This ensures a nice tight fit.
Attach a harvest pipe(stand from broken fan) to lid and on the inside attach a bundle of cloth/paper/shadecloth so the Black soldier flies can use it as a climbing ramp.
That’s it.
How it works is you fill it with whatever compost you have at the time(+ a bucket of water).
Vegetable trimmings, weeds, meat, bones, manure, onions, citrus, buckets of dead cane toads, road kill, pretty much everything that was once alive is great Black soldier flies food.
Black soldier flies like it too wet for any other species and as they feed they churn the sludge drowning then eating any other pest fly species.
Anything that enters just becomes more food for the Black soldier flies.
Once the Black soldier flies mature, instinct kicks in and they head for the light.
Up the climbing the ramp, down the tube, and at that point the chooks and ducks smash them as they drop out the end all day long.
These free high protein nutrient dense critters make great eggs with beautiful yolks and your reducing landfill waste at the same time.
You can also hang a bucket underneath(rub a smear of vegetable oil around the rim).
The bucket fills during the day as the Black soldier flies auto-harvest themselves and you can then take them away to feed your lizards, fish, poultry etc.
As adults the Black soldier flies do look a lot like a wasp but they have no real mouth parts and CAN NOT BITE.
At that stage they just fly around looking for a mate, and then later a nice place to lay their eggs.
The cloth/paper/shade cloth climbing ramp inside the Black soldier flies farm is the ideal spot and they have no trouble finding it.
Feel free to copy and adapt it to your needs.
The link below has their natural range.
[https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/a9639dfa-fdc1-4226-b9e5-afb3d346d49d](https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/a9639dfa-fdc1-4226-b9e5-afb3d346d49d)
I am not sure how close you are to one, but you can probably go to the local reptile store and sell those to the herp folk. Look up prices on these online, you might be able to make a good chunk of money over the weekend if you have too many around. These are excellent feeders, as you probably know.
Sometimes, the light at the end of the tunnel actually leads the hungry beak of a chicken.