Black Solider Fly Adventures

[Teamonger]

@CosbyArt It was certainly one of the strangest and grosses things I've done in my life for sure. There was much bleaching of everything in sight after the fact! To be fair though I got the worms from a local breeder for much cheaper then I would have anywhere else so it was worth a bit of disgusting trouble.

 

[CosbyArt]

@CosbyArt It was certainly one of the strangest and grosses things I've done in my life for sure. There was much bleaching of everything in sight after the fact! To be fair though I got the worms from a local breeder for much cheaper then I would have anywhere else so it was worth a bit of disgusting trouble.

That I would have guessed lol. At least it seems the trouble was worth it with the new larvae.

 

[Teamonger]

Quick pic of the copious amount of flies I currently have. 

The L5 I choose as a guinea pig hasn't found the courage to anything but stare intently at the BSF I put in its habitat so far.

 

[nirotorin]

I have been interested in doing this again myself after a not very successful attempt many years ago. I watched a video of a Chinese college student last year who had a lot of good info, and great success breeding indoors. I believe he said they breed best at a certain temp in the 80's. I'll see if I can find, and post his videos later today. 

 

[Teamonger]

I forgot to update this thread. Since I put the enclosure in the window I have confirmed breeding and a ton of little worms wiggling about in the dirt. My adult population has also exploded and I am feeding them to my mantises with no issues. One thing I will say about them as a feeder though is that the mantises don't like eating their tough exoskeleton which makes for a bit more mess then say a bluebottle fly which they tend to eat everything but the wings. Lots of bug bits littering the bottoms of the tanks. Need to get my isopods back to work and see what they can do for the problem.

I never managed to replace all the fabric with plastic so it looks like just natural sunlight was the key factor I was missing not humidity.

Still no smell although the fabric is getting a bit grimy in places. I might replace it with screen that is less likely to mold in the near future to combat that issue.

 

[Teamonger]

Recap, Things Learned, Etc

Natural Sunlight IS THE KEY! Without this no matter what I did I could not get the BSF to breed.

So I would say my initial setup worked lovely and still is. However there are a few things I would change in version 2.0.
1) Curtain material gets moldy/nasty so I would use window screen instead.
2) Should have sealed the wood in the frame as its also getting moldy/nasty
3) Need to engineer a better way to access the breeding bucket to get out phoenix worms and put in food. Thinking some way to slide the bottom out of the side on casters like a drawer and a garbage shoot like door (for the food) might be good improvements.

4) Make the bottom plastic. The bottom of my current cage is just the same fabric as the rest. I put a plastic bin roughly the size of the bottom in there with the breeding bucket set inside of that thinking that the worms would stay in the second bin. I was wrong. The worms crawl out of everything and get stuck in the weirdest places amid the fabric and the frame. This can't be good for my hatching rate.
5) See through front panel. Both the fabric and the clear garbage bags I used to keep the flies in are not overly easy to see through. This makes it impossible to see if eggs are being lain or much of anything for that matter. The front of the encloser should be either plexi glass or some other actually clear plastic for proper viewing.

 

[Teamonger]

I'm going to be creating a version 2.0 BSF breeding setup in the next few days  Stay tuned for pics and more information on my progress.

There is now no doubt whatsoever that my flies are breeding. The breeding bucket is alive with creepy crawlies, nearly every tiny granule of coffee has at least one tiny baby in/on it. I can't put food in there fast enough, nearly anything I toss in there is completely gone within the day.

All my mantises are still loving them as a feeder with no issues at all besides a few of them being particularly messy fly eaters. And my reptiles/amphibians are loving the worms. I am loving these guys as a wonderful feeder for both mantises and reptiles. Match made in heaven.

 

[Mishi]

Any updates on v2. 0?

 

[guapoalto049]

Did you feed larvae to mantids or just the adult flies?

 

[Teamonger]

Any updates on v2. 0?

Unfortunately I have moved countries since this and now have the most basic setup as I don't have room for anything bigger and more elaborate. Maybe in a few years when i get house with a garage!

Did you feed larvae to mantids or just the adult flies?

Both. 

 

[Introvertebrate]

Unfortunately I have moved countries since this and now have the most basic setup as I don't have room for anything bigger and more elaborate. Maybe in a few years when i get house with a garage!

No longer in Iceland?

 

[Teamonger]

No longer in Iceland?

I am still in Iceland, but the first version was made in Canada when I had a lot more room to work with. I only have a tiny laundry room to keep all my feeders in now so my setup is bare bones. Just a mesh cage with a plastic bin in it.

 

[Introvertebrate]

I am still in Iceland, but the first version was made in Canada when I had a lot more room to work with. I only have a tiny laundry room to keep all my feeders in now so my setup is bare bones. Just a mesh cage with a plastic bin in it.

Got it.

 

[kwright]

I appreciated this thread nonetheless! It was a lot of information. I'm currently experimenting with raising HF. A lot of my newer species of mantids are scared of my dubia roaches, even when they're much smaller than them. And constantly buying flies is more pricey than the mantids themselves! So here I go...rotting beef liver. But nonetheless this thread on BSFL is awesome.

 

[guapoalto049]

I found the adults are readily grabbed, but they are almost never eaten fully and often dropped early on. They may not taste great to the Mantids. Same goes for the larvae...I was really excited to try these since they’re much easier than bbf but it didn’t pan out