Black Soldier Fly Larvae

Hey wazzzz uppp guys? Sorry its been a while, I have been... lazy. The semester is almost finished, but unlike my friends my exam schedule is not super crazy so its smooth sailing for me. EXCEPT I AM SICK. I totally thought I was immune to everything, because when everyone on my hall gets sick I have managed to stay healthy, but not anymore. Good golly Miss Molly. Oh well, ya gotta work with what you got. Alrighty, so this week's month's task is to come up with a sustainable campus initiative for Furman. My idea is to use black soldier fly larvae to make compost at the Furman Farm.

So a while back, I went to a sustainable agriculture conference in Durham and I learned about black soldier fly larvae to make animal feed from the dried larvae. We don't have any animals at the farm, however, the larvae also decomposes food scraps into compost super fast. These little guys can break down more than a pound of food scraps in a day. They eat so much, so it is good to use black soldier fly larvae if you have a steady stream of food scraps. More preferably from a dining hall or business. I remember this fall, we actually ran out of compost at the farm, so this would be perfect for providing a constant stream of compost. There is a lady that makes compost in 3 days with black soldier flies. Normal compost takes months, even with the addition of efficient microbes. Black soldier flies are more efficient than worms at decomposing food. If I could get a good system going with food scraps from the dining hall, I could branch out to local breweries and acquire spent grain as an input, and be producing a crazy amount of compost. Another perk is that the larvae can be harvested, dried, and mechanically pressed to extract oil. The oil can then be made into biodiesel! Apparently, Furman has a biodiesel lab, but I have yet to come in contact with the person who runs the lab. Compost and biodiesel? How flipping awesome?!

Despite the intimidating name, black soldier flies are not pesky like house flies, actually, the house fly population of an area decreases when black soldier flies are introduced to it. So no worries about annoying buzzing erywhere.

The next step is construction. The men at the conference used 55 gallon drums raised on concrete cinderblocks to grow their black soldier flies. That all sounds dandy, except the bins have to be turned just like regular compost bins. From my experience of having a compost bin, I know how terrible that can be. So, I decided that I should make a contraption that can be turned with little manual energy. I think it will look like this.

The little fin, is to prevent the compost from clumping up and causes a better aerating effect (pardon the purple color I have no idea what happened). Although the men at the conference recommended making the barrel raised at a 10 degree (or percent...I forgot) slope, because the larvae will try to crawl out of the bucket when they are mature. Creating a slope forces the larvae to climb out of the top and you can put a bucket at the end to collect them as they crawl out. So I think I will modify the plan to include sockets (I don't know the proper terminology) that will minimize the friction of the axel on the wood, because one X is going to be higher than the other to achieve the slope. 

I have already bought two used 55 gallon drums from a dude on Craigslist for $20, now I just have to make this thing and start up in the spring (insects don't like the cold). Maybe I'll post some pictures when I get around to that. Later skater.