Vela Creations is an in-depth resource for off grid living. The site documents our research and experiences, hoping that they might help others interested in pursuing this lifestyle. This blog is designed to document our day to day experiences as we build our new, sustainable homestead. If you are interested in seeing more photos and videos, we have a flickr account at the following url: http://flickr.com/photos/35090117@N05/collections/

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Black Soldier Flies

A pretty exciting new addition to our household is some Black Soldier Flies.

There's a guy on Abe's favorite forum, permies.com, who got chatting to Abe and then sent us some of these incredible little creatures for free - (Thanks a lot ape99!).

They eat anything dead or rotting, and eat it very quickly. There are videos of people putting dead animals in a container of these BSF and in the morning the carcass is gone. Once we increase our population, we plan to use them to compost all manure, animal and human. Their waste can then go to worms. And there is one added bonus: the maggots harvest themselves and can fill all of a chicken's (or even pig's) protein needs. When the maggots are ready to change into adults, they climb up out of their container into whatever you put on the other end. For them to breed, you let some outside. They will turn into adults (a wasp-like fly) for just a day or two and their only job as an adult is to breed. They will lay their eggs in the same container you keep the maggots, which give off a hormone that attracts the female adult.

Wish I could have included a photo of the bucket home Abe made for them, but it's so cold outside I don't want to open them up! We'll keep you posted as our colony increases.

1 comment:

  1. Here are some open source pictures
    http://www.appropedia.org/Black_Soldier_Fly

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