Black Soldier Fly Grubs!

I haven't seen a thread on these and thought I would pipe in. I bought a BioPod and have been putting food scraps in for the last month. Now, every evening I'm going out and finding a cup or so of grubs. My Chams and Beardies love them. If you have not explored these feeders, I highly recommend them. You can buy them commercially, they are called Phoenix worms on the market.

The great thing about them is after you invest in the BioPod, they are free! Scrap food attracts the Black Soldier Fly (which does not even have a mouth and are completely harmless). The Soldier fly drives out typical flies and if you have too many grubs, the birds and fish love them too.

Here is a pic of my harvest tonight:

http://i428.photobucket.com/albums/q...s/DSC00609.jpg

Do you mind posting a pic of your setup? What kinda maintance goes into it?

The set up is this thing: http://www.green-living.com/images/p...est_detail.png

all you do is throw in your food scraps and viola, soldier grubs. The thing is really amazing. Also, after it has been in operation for a while, you drain off the "tea" and dilute it and use it as fertilizer. Win-win if I ever heard of one.

BTW, there is pretty much no smell. The scent that comes off of it is kind of an earthy smell, not rotting food. I was really skeptical at first, but now I'm going to keep this thing going year after year.

Maybe I need to do a little research but how long do the grubs last before they either die or grow up?

That is seriously cool. I have been thinking of getting a beardie and HATE crickets. Could you keep the biopod indoors in your home. I don't have a garage or anything outside and it gets quite cold here in the winter.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

That is seriously cool. I have been thinking of getting a beardie and HATE crickets. Could you keep the biopod indoors in your home. I don't have a garage or anything outside and it gets quite cold here in the winter.

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I don't think you can keep them in the house. The black soldier flies have to have access to the pod to lay their eggs. I have to tell you that I'm drowning in these things. I've put them in the fridge and will be selling them at a local expo next week. My beardies and chams love love love them. If you check on the price of Phoenix worms (the same thing), this pod will pay for itself in a year, as long as the BSF is native to your area. And, they are native to most of the continental US.

You can also make one from buckets. However, I took the lazy route and purchased mine. Do a google search on Black Soldier Fly Grubs and you will find plenty of information.

I raise thousands upon thousands of these in modified rubbermaid bins. I drill holes all over the bottom for drainage (I lose some of the smaller ones by escaping through the holes, but the benefits out weigh the loss). I hand pick mine from the bins, and I can say it is amazing how hot they actually get the media. Between the soldier fly larvae and roaches I raise I have not had a feeder bill other then rodents for quite some time. They are a easy seasonal food that is widespread across alot of the US. You can raise them in the winter but that takes a little more work that I will not do again. I always wanted to get one of the biopods, and I have to say after reading your post on them I will be buying one as another grow out container.

I had no idea phoenix worms were the same thing! Thanks for the info!

Heck, I've got so many I'm giving them away. My chams and dragons are full and I can't get them to eat all I've produced from just food scraps. I wish I could find a way to make them last so I can sell them. Just haven't figured that out yet.

I was buying them for awhile from a local lady in small quantities until I found out about silk worms. Then I started buying them in large quantities because I have a mulberry tree. The silks will live and keep growing for weeks on a diet of fresh mulberry leaves. I figured $40 for 200 of them wasn't bad considering they get a lot larger than the phoenix worms but knowing what the Phoenix worms actually are now, I'll start growing some of my own now.

I only feed my dragon silks and Phoenix worms due to their calcium and nutrient content anyway so I'm glad you made this thread.

What do I have to do to cultivate them if I just want to use a bucket?