Black Soldier Fly Larvae

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briansworms

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I am looking at setting up containers to breed these. They are I believe an excellent food. Just looking for peoples thoughts on them
 
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Do it Brian. It took me 2 1/2 years to attract them. My dragons, geckos, skinks, turtles all eat them.
 
A lady on the turtle Forum said that she couldn't attract any in Sydney either. If it works out I will pay to advertise on here but at the moment it is just an idea. No point in advertising if you cant supply yet. No point in going ahead with it if there isn't a market either. I just wanted to get peoples opinions and ideas. Thanks for the feedback.
 
Apparently they have something like 40x the amount of calcium compared to crickets. I have some coming soon :)
 
Yes high in protein and calcium and low in fat
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In the US they are called Phoenix Worms
 
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Never heard of these before!!
Just Googled them. As it happens I have stacks of these!!! I compost my rat waste in wheelie bins with worms and these guys are everywhere.


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Are they feed to reptiles as grubs? Is there anywhere online we can purchase theses at all?


Rick
 
Are they feed to reptiles as grubs? Is there anywhere online we can purchase theses at all?


Rick
I did searches and cant find anyone. That's the reason for my first post but it got edited. I am not selling them but trying to see if there is a market and if so I will look at raising them and be happy to advertise on here.

Yes they are a Super Food for reptiles. I was told that by a Bearded Dragon Breeder who suggested I look into it. I have thought about if for a few years but never researched to see if there is a market.
 
I did searches and cant find anyone. That's the reason for my first post but it got edited. I am not selling them but trying to see if there is a market and if so I will look at raising them and be happy to advertise on here.

Yes they are a Super Food for reptiles. I was told that by a Bearded Dragon Breeder who suggested I look into it. I have thought about if for a few years but never researched to see if there is a market.

Im surprise our major australian bug breeders/sellers arnt selling them if they are as good as them seem. I would really love to get some given the stats on them, could use flys for my frogs and grubs for dragons and monitors.


Rick
 
The flies don't have mouths so they don't bite or sting. They don't land on rotting food and transmit disease. They would be hard to catch unless you set up an enclosure and introduce grubs to it.
 
Are these the fellas?

y7e6u2y4.jpg


Hopefully they're not too hard to see.
 
I have tried to breed them, for 2 months at least. Gave up as I couldn't seem to attract them in Sydney area.
Did get some massive white maggots tho, could have been early stages of them?
Fractal, aren't they just blow flies?

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This is the adult fly.
 
I have tried to breed them, for 2 months at least. Gave up as I couldn't seem to attract them in Sydney area.
Did get some massive white maggots tho, could have been early stages of them?
Fractal, aren't they just blow flies?

View attachment 308524
This is the adult fly.

Not entirely sure.
Got them labelled as "soldier grubs" or "calci-gents", the larvae is huge. I tried to get a close up photo but my camera is crap. They do not have a mouth.
 
These are the larvae. I use a bio pod and they self harvest.

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What you have Fractal man are not Black Soldier Flies (Hermetia illucens). Native EWD picture is an adult Black Soldier fly.
 

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Gday mummabear, How did you get your maggot factory started? And chance you could post a photo of the setup? :D Has anyone got any diy soldier fly harvesters?
 
As i said earlier i use a product called a Bio Pod. They are made specifically for Black Solider Fly. They self harvest. It took 2 1/2 years before they turned up in my Bio Pod in Cairns.
 
Do you think it was the certain type of food or scraps you put in there that finally attracted them, Surely they would have been around the area, maybe the conditions weren't right?
I recently lost two big yabbies, after a few days of rotting I noticed some very large white maggots which fit the photos on goog images, seafood may be the best lure? :D
 
The actual fly involved is an introduced american species. They are less common in Sydney and south and not present in any number in Victoria (a less prolific native is present but is hard to culture). They are not produced commercially as they cannot be cultured reliably in enclosed facilities (i.e. they breed best using wild flies). The biopod works very well but the biopod company gives a number of designs of home made options. There are two model, the original biopod and the biopod plus (the original designers son was given the company control as a wedding gift, stole the idea and set up his own company and sacked his father, so the story goes) . Both work equally well. I have found moist chook pellets to out-produce any other medium in both attraction and maggot production. They are an excellent food but can be a bit tough for small dragons. If relying on self harvesting (read up on it and it will make sense) then you will only harvest large worms. My biopod has been running for 3-4 years and produces a 1/2 - 1 cup full of worms per day under conditions of mostly neglect. You can at least double this if you look after it well. They start to shut down when ambient temps drop below 20 C.
 
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They are less common in Sydney and south and not present in any number in Victoria (a less prolific native is present but is hard to culture). They are not produced commercially as they cannot be cultured reliably in enclosed facilities (i.e. they breed best using wild flies). The biopod works very well but the biopod company gives a number of designs of home made options. There are two model, the original biopod and the biopod plus (the original designers son was given the company control as a wedding gift, stole the idea and set up his own company and sacked his father, so the story goes) . Both work equally well. I have found moist chook pellets to out-produce any other medium in both attraction and maggot production. They are an excellent food but can be a bit tough for small dragons. If relying on self harvesting (read up on it and it will make sense) then you will only harvest large worms. My biopod has been running for 3-4 years and produces a 1/2 - 1 cup full of worms per day under conditions of mostly neglect. You can at least double this if you look after it well. They start to shut down when ambient temps drop below 20 C.

Hey,
Any chance of a link to the homemade options?
Also how have you found them as gecko food?

Cheers,

Josh
 
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