While a great deal of my blockchain friends are always busy working bugs out of their technologically advanced systems, applications and other stuff that I simply have no clue about, I have been working very hard to incorporate bugs into mine!
First of all let me start by apologizing for not being as active as I probably should have been on here lately, the thing is just that in between the house-work, farm work, music, writing and online work I have really had my hands full and above it all constant power outages in the area have certainly not made my life any easier, but enough about that, back to the bugs!
Recently I did a post about my new earth worm tank that I put up in order to generate not only earthworms but vermipost and liquid fertilizer as well, but as anyone on here that follows me might know, my work simply does not stop when one project is completed. So I decided that I would add more beneficial bugs to the farming system at hand, and this time I am looking into black soldier flies.
I think it is fair to say that when the majority of people think about working closely with flies or maggots, they might just cringe a little, and honestly I did too at first, but as I am learning more about the benefits of breeding these hideous little creepy crawly's the more comfortable I am getting with the idea.
Why on earth would anyone want to breed flies?
Don't we already have enough insects in the world? you may wonder, and the answer to that is simply NO!
Beneficial insects play such a crucial role in our ecosystem, and managing the breeding of them correctly can lead to the reduction of many chemical supplements additives and solutions when it comes to farming, sustainable living or simply growing a garden.
Now, let me explain to you what I am planning to accomplish by breeding Black Soldier Flies.
First and foremost harvested larvae are a clean source of protein and calcium, this makes them a great natural feed for poultry as well as a variety of birds, but more than that they can also be dried and grounded to be used as a protein rich additive to other animal feeds where they will replace the more commonly used bone-meal or fish-meal. this is brilliant because our oceans can not sustain the constant harvesting for the production of animal feeds, and bone-meal can very easily carry very dangerous diseases over to the animals eating them such as mad cow disease.
Another great thing about farming these creepy crawlies, is that the byproduct or their waste is a great compost that can be used in farming or gardening. 1 kg of black soldier fly eggs can work their way through a cube of chicken manure in a question of day - that is 1.6 tons of chicken shit! (The can also compost other organic waste - but mine will be grown on chicken poop mostly)
One might expect this process to be a smelly affair, but in actual fact their is little to no vile aromas that stem from breeding these little guys especially not compared to anything that you would expect house fly maggots to live from, and in fact, due to the larvae size they will ensure that common houseflies or greenflies do not encroach on their territory.
As for the flies themselves - due to their makeup, the adult flies feed mostly on plant nectar (or sugar water in captivity) this making them not a pest to humans and they do not carry harmful diseases like common flies either.