Your happy little accident has been so beneficial for me. I searched all over for plasted weave baskets, but I instead just went to target and got a basket with holes in it. I wish I could find baskets more like yours.
lol I used to wear ear plugs back when I had a pile of beehives and would be working bees all day. Little buggers love to explore where they got no business. lol
They need lots of opportunities to evacuate. Depending on the ramp system you're using, they might just struggle to find or utilize the ramps. But it is also in their nature to find holes and get away. I hope the baskets work for you!
They will move from their food source to dryer ground when they are ready to turn to pupae. Try increasing your moisture level in the food. Then make sure they only have one exit to get to. (They squeeze through lost lids)
i got my first 6 baskets, tomorrow i'm building a sieve; i'm 10 days in with 20,000 larvae, so far so good. thanks for your guidance, i enjoyed hearing how you solved your struggles; i'm stumbling forward with optimism. i just want to raise enough to feed a growing flock of chickens and ducks, but i want them to grow year around like you do it.
I bought those at a dollar store, but you can search for "brown sterilite baskets" and you'll have a variety to choose from. I went with the deeper ones, and they hold the same volume of the bus bins you see in the video
My most recent video on the summer time fly hutch goes into this. Basically once the prepupae have separated themselves, I keep them in a gray bin in a dark location where they eventually turn rigid and stop moving. Once in this pupae stage, I'll start adding them to a different type of bin with holes -- these happen to be white. And to note: I don't put more than two inches deep of pupae in these bins because it can get too dense for the flies to then emerge from. These white bins get stacked and loaded into the fly hutch. The flies start to emerge within a few days. I add handfuls of pupae every other day, usually the same day I collect eggs. And I will sift the pupae bins to remove any empty shells and debris.
Not like I used to. I think mites establish when there’s a lot of residue and too much moisture. Since I sift pretty regularly, the bin environment isn’t as friendly to mites.
@@fullcirclebio would mites die quicker with high heat or freezing? I roasted a batch of them and then fed them back to the BSF. They took a lot of heat before they died.
Will you have more produce or more meat/processed foods? The bone crusher works well with processed foods but fibrous vegetables tend to wrap around the blade, which can cause it to bog down and stop. I don't have experience with a vegetable chopper, but it sounds like that would work well if your incoming material is fibrous vegetables.
Air circulation is still important in the prepupae/pupae stage. They shouldn't be packed densely. The flies will have a difficult time emerging if there isn't porous space. I don't use a substrate for the pupae anymore. It was only leading to a mess to clean up because the bins would heat up and start to compost. They are 2 inches deep in white baskets with holes in them.
Beautiful 😻. Much more economical than the “BioPods”. Quick question… what’s the whole process smell like? Seems like they eat everything that you feed them quickly.
There is a baseline odor to this that is difficult to describe. It's a new smell to anyone who encounters it. And it's a smell that sticks to your clothes. I've noticed a spectrum of smells when it comes to the feeding bins. Depending on how aerated they are, the frass and residue has almost a sweet silage or cocoa smell. Some have a yeasty, old bar smell. Then there's one that can only be described as forbidden Worcestershire sauce.
I am noticing the smell is not pleasant on any scale when they are past the 3rd instar and they need sifted! Yuck! I have also noticed many hours later when I am gone I will get a “phantom” whiff of it-like it sticks to the inside of your nose or it is sticking to clothing/skin and that is why sometimes I can smell it hours later. Sometimes it will be halfway through the day and I get a whiff of it at work even after a wardrobe change. It’s very weird! LOL
I find the smell lingers more in the winter. I always come home and decontaminate in the shower, and I always keep my hair back in a bun and under a hat
I don't know if it's an ideal practice, but I've just been putting prepupae into the emergence bins. They seem to emerge fine for me, and it's one less thing for me to acquire, especially since the contents will just become compost. I have tried sawdust, mulch and rice hulls in the past. I haven't experimented with the success rate of using bedding or not.
@@phillipbertrand8514 The prepupae will hang out in a gray bin until the majority of them stop moving and turn rigid. I'll put maybe two inches of the pupae into a plastic bin with bigger holes. (I used to use the brown baskets but the flies would get their heads stuck when attempting to emerge and wouldn't be able to get unstuck.) The life stages move faster when the temperatures are warmer, so in the winter time, I make sure to keep the pupae warm. I think I should do a video on this part of the larvae farming because I do get a lot of questions about it.
Thanks for the video and thank you for sharing the process. I am trying to get the BSF to breed in the love cage and so far they don't seem interested in one another... Any pointers on getting them to breed? I'm working with natural light and it's summer time so the temperature is adequate. Any advice would be appreciated. 😁
It's hard to advise without knowing much about your setup, but direct sunlight is best, and it's helpful to have a healthy, eating larvae colony nearby. The flies like water so a very shallow container with a wet towel works. And you really need to have a dense fly population in the love cage. Vegetation also offers a nice setting for their lekking.
I just subscribed to your channel. Anyways, I just moved down south and can't wait to start my soldier fly colony. With that said, you mentioned that you transfer the contents from another bin to the open sided containers. Do you think it'd be possible just to grow them within the open sided containers and not do the transfer?
The larvae leak like water. So if for any reason they don't want to be where they are, they will find a way out. I've had larvae crawling up the literal walls of my insulated room when I first started -- they escaped the bins and moisture gives them the traction they need to gain distance from their original vessel. I would strongly recommend not using this type of basket-container for day-to-day feeding. They will escape and you will be annoyed. I speak from experience. I used the basket method here to deliberately separate out the prepupae from the larvae, which works well for about 90 minutes. Beyond that time frame, larvae also start to leak through the holes.
It's a great way to recycle -- upcycle -- food scraps and I wish you happy soldier fly farming. There is nothing more humbling than being outmaneuvered by a colony of insects
Do you provide the pupae/prepupae with a food source after they are sifted? I’m noticing that some are still active after basket sifting and seem hungry, so I put a piece of bread in that bin and sure enough they ARE still eating. Did I sift premature? Do they still need food at this point or do I just put them in the fly house as is? I don’t want them to starve! Lol
The dark ones -- prepupae -- will not eat. They just want to find some place to become pupae, which is why they're still active. The light ones -- larvae -- will keep eating until they've completed the final instar to prepupaehood
Do you know the size of the holes in that basket. I am having the same issues trying to separate my BSFL. I’m having issues trying to get my flies to reproduce regularly too. Any suggestions?
1/8" x 3/8" but the container could have any smallish hole size. Take a walk through the storage container aisle at any store. The plastic "basket" is also really easy to wash up. The flies need very consistent and specific conditions. Do you have ample heat and light? And are you replenishing pupae regularly enough?
@@fullcirclebio thank you that’s very helpful. As far as breeding I definitely struggle with keeping it constant. I’m using 2x4x5 grow tents to hold the flies, I have strong grow lights in each tent with a timer for 16 hours a day. I can’t keep the temp steady, and that also causes my humidity to fluctuate. They don’t lay their eggs into the cardboard or the wood slats I put out for them.
@@WarGardensForVictory I put the three criteria -- heat, light, humidity -- into a priority list: I figured out the heat first. I have a large wooden structure -- it looks like a hutch so I refer to it as the "fly hutch" -- with a screened in overhead light fixture that houses two heat lamps which are connected to a thermostat. You want a minimum of 80F. Then I figured out the correct sunlight lights to put in the overhead fixture. You might be running the day lights too long for them. Mine are set to a regular old light timer. They come on around a normal sunrise hour and turn off at "sunset." And then humidity is usually low on my list of priorities. I have two trays each with a sponge that I rewet every day and swap out new/clean every couple days. I should do a video on this to better show how it works.
@@fullcirclebio I also ended up moving back home from Oregon to Indiana. I’m doing red wrigglers with a CFT 2x6 box. It definitely helps that dad is a constructor lol. Plus parents will work their whole lives and I think they are depending on me to create a business. Raising BSF, worms/castings, minnows and wax worms is the plan since I live in northern Indiana. I’ll looking forward to your next video.
Ótima ideia , mas eu descobri um jeito ainda mais fácil, coloque as em um recipiente bem húmido, inclinado a pouco menos de 45°. De preferência tampado com uma saída na parte de baixo da tampa. Faço isso com um balde, saem todos e os mais jovens não saem nenhum
This will happen for me when I feed them food that has a wetter consistency, whether I want it to or not. And sometimes I'll just find a bunch of prepupae heading towards the door and all I can do is sweep them up.
Yes, it's true, I broke my head a lot until I learned a few things. When I started there was almost no content on TH-cam, I read some articles. It's not inconvenient, I do it that way, it's automatic, I feed it more humid like oranges in the matrices, sometimes just the juice, I put it in the crushed corn, then they get very fat, and the pre-pupae already fall into another dry pot with dry crushed corn, there they stay until they kill wasps, it's very automatic.
I really liked your setup with lamps. It's a shame here in Brazil that electricity is very expensive. But when I breed on a large scale, I will do the same at least in the winter. Very good your contents, please don't stop
i was worried about how to develop a system with out intensive handlabor for the larvae and pupae separation , and you solve it in 5 minutes video . if you develop a bio pond under another pond with water drainage and incroporating all the knowledege of BSF out there , you , i insist , have the complete system from one stage to other with no effort and simple harvesting method ...
Helo ! Tôi ấn tượng với những việc Bạn làm,rất giá trị để mọi người học hỏi. Bạn hãy thăm khảo cách nuôi ruồi lính đen trong VI SINH rất ok. TH-cam: Ruồi lính đen Việt Nam
Wow, the most brilliant BSF harvesting technique that I have come across on You tube..Just wow ✅ thank YOU..!!!!
Your happy little accident has been so beneficial for me. I searched all over for plasted weave baskets, but I instead just went to target and got a basket with holes in it. I wish I could find baskets more like yours.
wow, thank you for sharing this video sharing your idea in sorting the prepuape
As Bob Ross would say "there are no mistakes just happy accidents"
lol I used to wear ear plugs back when I had a pile of beehives and would be working bees all day. Little buggers love to explore where they got no business. lol
Thank you for sharing. Will definitely try this too. Love the hat too.
Fantastic idea. Thank you for sharing!!
This is a Great Idea. Thanks for sharing
Thank you a ton for this sharing. Love to try it out!!
Are we wearing ear plugs to prevent flies in the ear??? That is horrifying to even think about.
Ha no, the ear plugs were in use because I was running loud equipment while this was going on in the background
Subscribed! Thanks for these great how to’s~
Sure thing!
My larvae never self harvest via ramp, I don't know why. I will try this right away, thank you so much.❤
They need lots of opportunities to evacuate. Depending on the ramp system you're using, they might just struggle to find or utilize the ramps. But it is also in their nature to find holes and get away. I hope the baskets work for you!
They will move from their food source to dryer ground when they are ready to turn to pupae. Try increasing your moisture level in the food. Then make sure they only have one exit to get to. (They squeeze through lost lids)
@@Fox236-n4w Thank you SO much!
Brilliant!
i got my first 6 baskets, tomorrow i'm building a sieve; i'm 10 days in with 20,000 larvae, so far so good. thanks for your guidance, i enjoyed hearing how you solved your struggles; i'm stumbling forward with optimism. i just want to raise enough to feed a growing flock of chickens and ducks, but i want them to grow year around like you do it.
It gets pretty tricky to figure out all the logistics, but if you have the patience, it's certainly figure-outable!
Thank you for sharing!
The room you are in is like a scene from Dexter.
I've heard that before, but I've never seen the show
NIce!! Ran into you while researching about bsf. Glad to be subscriber #500
Thanks! Virtual high five!
would you mind telling me where you get those baskets? i doesn't matter how you arrived at this, it's brilliant.
I bought those at a dollar store, but you can search for "brown sterilite baskets" and you'll have a variety to choose from. I went with the deeper ones, and they hold the same volume of the bus bins you see in the video
Hi..!!I I Was having a tremendous hard time..in separeting then
You Just,save me a good some working time..
Thanks a Lot..from South América..Brasil..
Very good sister, I am Nimol from Cambodia.I always watch your channel but I wonder why my bsf pupas didn't become to the fly bsf
That is hard to tell -- are they in a warm enough location? Are they too dense?
do you have info on what to do from this stage? Where do you place the prepupae/pupae? this is the stage I have needing more info.
My most recent video on the summer time fly hutch goes into this. Basically once the prepupae have separated themselves, I keep them in a gray bin in a dark location where they eventually turn rigid and stop moving. Once in this pupae stage, I'll start adding them to a different type of bin with holes -- these happen to be white. And to note: I don't put more than two inches deep of pupae in these bins because it can get too dense for the flies to then emerge from. These white bins get stacked and loaded into the fly hutch. The flies start to emerge within a few days. I add handfuls of pupae every other day, usually the same day I collect eggs. And I will sift the pupae bins to remove any empty shells and debris.
Had to watch this a second time. Great video. I will have to try this. Do you ever have problems with mites?
Not like I used to. I think mites establish when there’s a lot of residue and too much moisture. Since I sift pretty regularly, the bin environment isn’t as friendly to mites.
@@fullcirclebio as I get more bsf, I will develop a better system. keep up the good work.
@@fullcirclebio would mites die quicker with high heat or freezing? I roasted a batch of them and then fed them back to the BSF. They took a lot of heat before they died.
You could try 24-48 hours in the freezer. Any mite issues that I have seem to be worse in the warmer months.
@@fullcirclebio ill try it and let you know.
What do you do with the prepupae that are about to pupating? Cause I have been struggling with the pupation part. :C
@@galan8115 this video goes into my process for the pupae: th-cam.com/video/gb6Hea6wwmE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=bpbjSfS3gaGqNc_h
Which one you suggest i should go for "bone crusher or vegetable chopper", for making BSF food
Will you have more produce or more meat/processed foods? The bone crusher works well with processed foods but fibrous vegetables tend to wrap around the blade, which can cause it to bog down and stop. I don't have experience with a vegetable chopper, but it sounds like that would work well if your incoming material is fibrous vegetables.
Thankyou for briefing it helpfull
I'm particularly fond of the flies on your hat
After the separation, must I keep the pupae in an oxygenated place or the don't need oxygen?
Air circulation is still important in the prepupae/pupae stage. They shouldn't be packed densely. The flies will have a difficult time emerging if there isn't porous space. I don't use a substrate for the pupae anymore. It was only leading to a mess to clean up because the bins would heat up and start to compost. They are 2 inches deep in white baskets with holes in them.
@@fullcirclebio thank you 😊 🙏
I’m getting me a basket lol I been sifting them with a sifter with bigger holes in it. This is so much better lol
Beautiful 😻. Much more economical than the “BioPods”. Quick question… what’s the whole process smell like? Seems like they eat everything that you feed them quickly.
There is a baseline odor to this that is difficult to describe. It's a new smell to anyone who encounters it. And it's a smell that sticks to your clothes. I've noticed a spectrum of smells when it comes to the feeding bins. Depending on how aerated they are, the frass and residue has almost a sweet silage or cocoa smell. Some have a yeasty, old bar smell. Then there's one that can only be described as forbidden Worcestershire sauce.
I am noticing the smell is not pleasant on any scale when they are past the 3rd instar and they need sifted! Yuck! I have also noticed many hours later when I am gone I will get a “phantom” whiff of it-like it sticks to the inside of your nose or it is sticking to clothing/skin and that is why sometimes I can smell it hours later. Sometimes it will be halfway through the day and I get a whiff of it at work even after a wardrobe change. It’s very weird! LOL
I find the smell lingers more in the winter. I always come home and decontaminate in the shower, and I always keep my hair back in a bun and under a hat
Great solution. What do you use for bedding for pupae. Do they need any? How deep? Thanking you in advance. Phillip
I don't know if it's an ideal practice, but I've just been putting prepupae into the emergence bins. They seem to emerge fine for me, and it's one less thing for me to acquire, especially since the contents will just become compost. I have tried sawdust, mulch and rice hulls in the past. I haven't experimented with the success rate of using bedding or not.
How do you proceed with your pupae? I mean how do you set up for when they turn into flies?
@@phillipbertrand8514 The prepupae will hang out in a gray bin until the majority of them stop moving and turn rigid. I'll put maybe two inches of the pupae into a plastic bin with bigger holes. (I used to use the brown baskets but the flies would get their heads stuck when attempting to emerge and wouldn't be able to get unstuck.) The life stages move faster when the temperatures are warmer, so in the winter time, I make sure to keep the pupae warm. I think I should do a video on this part of the larvae farming because I do get a lot of questions about it.
That's so cool!
Thanks for the video and thank you for sharing the process. I am trying to get the BSF to breed in the love cage and so far they don't seem interested in one another... Any pointers on getting them to breed? I'm working with natural light and it's summer time so the temperature is adequate. Any advice would be appreciated. 😁
It's hard to advise without knowing much about your setup, but direct sunlight is best, and it's helpful to have a healthy, eating larvae colony nearby. The flies like water so a very shallow container with a wet towel works. And you really need to have a dense fly population in the love cage. Vegetation also offers a nice setting for their lekking.
@@fullcirclebio Thank you for your response. I think low population density might be the issue here. I shall keep at it :)
Thank you again!
I like it 👍👍👍👍
Is there a website I can buy from you?
Question- How do you keep fruit flies out of the compost? I like bananas, but the peels often have flies!
Compost in a pile should get mixed with plenty of carbon and then the pile gets covered with 8" of carbon or finished compost
I just subscribed to your channel. Anyways, I just moved down south and can't wait to start my soldier fly colony. With that said, you mentioned that you transfer the contents from another bin to the open sided containers. Do you think it'd be possible just to grow them within the open sided containers and not do the transfer?
The larvae leak like water. So if for any reason they don't want to be where they are, they will find a way out. I've had larvae crawling up the literal walls of my insulated room when I first started -- they escaped the bins and moisture gives them the traction they need to gain distance from their original vessel. I would strongly recommend not using this type of basket-container for day-to-day feeding. They will escape and you will be annoyed. I speak from experience. I used the basket method here to deliberately separate out the prepupae from the larvae, which works well for about 90 minutes. Beyond that time frame, larvae also start to leak through the holes.
I will definitely heed your advice!
It's a great way to recycle -- upcycle -- food scraps and I wish you happy soldier fly farming. There is nothing more humbling than being outmaneuvered by a colony of insects
Do you provide the pupae/prepupae with a food source after they are sifted? I’m noticing that some are still active after basket sifting and seem hungry, so I put a piece of bread in that bin and sure enough they ARE still eating. Did I sift premature? Do they still need food at this point or do I just put them in the fly house as is? I don’t want them to starve! Lol
The dark ones -- prepupae -- will not eat. They just want to find some place to become pupae, which is why they're still active. The light ones -- larvae -- will keep eating until they've completed the final instar to prepupaehood
good stuff
How big are the slits in mm? Seems perfect size
I think they're 1mm x 9mm?
Do you know the size of the holes in that basket. I am having the same issues trying to separate my BSFL. I’m having issues trying to get my flies to reproduce regularly too. Any suggestions?
1/8" x 3/8" but the container could have any smallish hole size. Take a walk through the storage container aisle at any store. The plastic "basket" is also really easy to wash up. The flies need very consistent and specific conditions. Do you have ample heat and light? And are you replenishing pupae regularly enough?
@@fullcirclebio thank you that’s very helpful.
As far as breeding I definitely struggle with keeping it constant. I’m using 2x4x5 grow tents to hold the flies, I have strong grow lights in each tent with a timer for 16 hours a day. I can’t keep the temp steady, and that also causes my humidity to fluctuate. They don’t lay their eggs into the cardboard or the wood slats I put out for them.
@@WarGardensForVictory I put the three criteria -- heat, light, humidity -- into a priority list: I figured out the heat first. I have a large wooden structure -- it looks like a hutch so I refer to it as the "fly hutch" -- with a screened in overhead light fixture that houses two heat lamps which are connected to a thermostat. You want a minimum of 80F. Then I figured out the correct sunlight lights to put in the overhead fixture. You might be running the day lights too long for them. Mine are set to a regular old light timer. They come on around a normal sunrise hour and turn off at "sunset." And then humidity is usually low on my list of priorities. I have two trays each with a sponge that I rewet every day and swap out new/clean every couple days. I should do a video on this to better show how it works.
@@fullcirclebio thank you I look forward to seeing that and fixing my own set up.
I’m interested in how you built an indoor fly house.
I'll have to post a video on that soon. It's been a lot of trial and error.
@@fullcirclebio I also ended up moving back home from Oregon to Indiana. I’m doing red wrigglers with a CFT 2x6 box. It definitely helps that dad is a constructor lol. Plus parents will work their whole lives and I think they are depending on me to create a business. Raising BSF, worms/castings, minnows and wax worms is the plan since I live in northern Indiana. I’ll looking forward to your next video.
I'll prioritize that video next then. Best of luck with your insect rearing!
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Ótima ideia , mas eu descobri um jeito ainda mais fácil, coloque as em um recipiente bem húmido, inclinado a pouco menos de 45°. De preferência tampado com uma saída na parte de baixo da tampa. Faço isso com um balde, saem todos e os mais jovens não saem nenhum
This will happen for me when I feed them food that has a wetter consistency, whether I want it to or not. And sometimes I'll just find a bunch of prepupae heading towards the door and all I can do is sweep them up.
Yes, it's true, I broke my head a lot until I learned a few things. When I started there was almost no content on TH-cam, I read some articles. It's not inconvenient, I do it that way, it's automatic, I feed it more humid like oranges in the matrices, sometimes just the juice, I put it in the crushed corn, then they get very fat, and the pre-pupae already fall into another dry pot with dry crushed corn, there they stay until they kill wasps, it's very automatic.
I really liked your setup with lamps. It's a shame here in Brazil that electricity is very expensive. But when I breed on a large scale, I will do the same at least in the winter. Very good your contents, please don't stop
i was worried about how to develop a system with out intensive handlabor for the larvae and pupae separation , and you solve it in 5 minutes video . if you develop a bio pond under another pond with water drainage and incroporating all the knowledege of BSF out there , you , i insist , have the complete system from one stage to other with no effort and simple harvesting method ...
parlez plus bsf que de votre vie primé merci
I'll do what I feel like
Helo ! Tôi ấn tượng với những việc Bạn làm,rất giá trị để mọi người học hỏi. Bạn hãy thăm khảo cách nuôi ruồi lính đen trong VI SINH rất ok. TH-cam: Ruồi lính đen Việt Nam
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