On my quest for a more self-sustained lifestyle I have come across a form of composting that completely blew my mind!

First I should say I am very fascinated with my basic compost where I put my greens and my browns but I always hate throwing out food that cannot be composted like meat, or dairy products. On one of my composting Facebook pages someone asked a question about Black Solider Fly composts. I had never heard of this before and took to Pinterest to find out what it was and why would someone even want to target a specific fly.

Black Soldier Flies as Recyclers of Waste

What I found was slightly gross, but SO EXCITING! Let me break it down.

  • You create a bin where you can throw all of your leftover scraps (including those that cannot go into your normal compost) We are talking anything that rots.. meat, dairy, random cooked foods in oils, bread.. just ANYTHING.
  • The bin would be designed to attract a black solider fly to lay their eggs within the bin. As the eggs turn into larvae, they spend about 14 days eating everything in sight and turning it into biomass. (and I mean everything!)
  • Around the 14 day mark the larvae goes on its quest to become a fly. This is the cool part. You create a ramp within the bin for the larvae to climb, but have the ramp attached to a jug. The larvae will crawl right into your jug that you can turn around and throw to your chickens.

Yep that’s right- free food for your chickens that aren’t direct scraps, but you also win because you have yet another way to convert waste into compost. Does that not just blow your mind? Ok.. maybe I am turning into a nerd for this stuff, but it’s just super cool! Derrick had even bought these dried out Black Soldier Fly Larva from the store:

Black Soldier Flies Are The New Superstars Of Sustainable Aquaculture

Some other fun facts about these flies

  • Black Solider Flies have a lifespan of about 5-9 days and lay around 500-900 BSF eggs at a time. Imagine how many larvae you could get in such a short period of time!
  • BSFs do not have any body part that could sting humans.
  • Dried fly larvae are 40-60% protein. Fantastic supplemental feed for your birds!

So after learning all of this information, I am all pumped to make my bin and it hits me.. What if I don’t have any BSFs in my area? I mean its super-hot here in Florida what if they don’t live here. So I then start looking up BSF climate when someone called me down to my chicken coop for something (I don’t remember what it was) but as I am walking to the coop I saw on a piece of wood A BLACK SOLIDER FLY! What? Right there where I was planning to put my bin. I guess I have seen these guys around before but just never knew it was a specific fly, or that it held any kind of importance. After researching further they are actually native to the southeast. They aren’t out as much in the cold so you would get the most of your production during the warmer months.

I have started making my bin after watching many tutorials. It ended up being super cheap. I am going to give it a try for a little while and report back on how it is going. If it is working ill post directions on how I made my bin but I want to make sure it works first.

I shall report back.