Soldier fly composting

[hoodat]

I gave up on my compost tumbler as a maker of normal compost and let the soldier fly larvae have it. You can feed them anything including spoiled meat, sour milk, the leftovers from cleaning fish and just about anything else. A cat got turned into road kill on the street in front of my house. I tossed it in and it was gone in just a few days, right down to the bones. In a short time I began to notice something dripping from the lowest drain hole and put a bucket under it to catch it. WOW!! This stuff is Dy - No - Mite. I pour a couple of ounces into a gallon jug and fill it with water, then pour it along a row of plants. The respose is almost immediate and very impressive. It's better than fish emulsion and has all but eliminated my need for a seperate garbage bin. The soldier fly larvae now eat all of my garbage that isn't suitable for a compost pile.

 

[Warthog]

I never heard of soldier flys, or even composting with flies.

Have you any more information Hoodat?

 

[hoodat]

Basically soldier flies are flies that quickly consume garbage. They don't really produce the kind of compost you would get from a compost pile. They consume so completely that there is almost nothing left and so fast there is very little odor. They are more of a means of sanitarily disposing of garbage. In the process they produce sanitary larvae that are invaluable as high protein chicken feed. They are even considerate enough to void their intestinal contents and self load themselves into a feeder for you.
A soldier fly in the adult stage has no mouth parts and is not attracted to humans so you don't have to worry about them becoming a pest. They won't enter a house except by accident. one soldier fly or another is found everywhere in the world except the arctic areas.
Here is a blog that will tell you more about them than I can. It shows you how to set up an experimental production from a 5 gallon bucket and parts available in any building supply store.
Come to think of it there is a commercial model available that is supposed to be able to handle the garbage from 4 large families. With the cooperation of a few neighbors it may be feasible in your situation. I think it's called a bio pod but I'm not sure about the name. Here are the links to the blogs.
http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/
http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/2010/04/07/bsf-bucket-bio-composter-version-2-0/

 

[Warthog]

Hoodat thanks for that information, I have had a quick look at the sites, and bookmarked them for further reading, all looks very interesting.

 

[hoodat]

here's a link to the commercial model but I have no idea where to buy one. it also gives some ideas of how to use the grubs as fish and chicken food. I've also heard that some municipalities are setting up large scale operations to process waste.

http://www.thebiopod.com/pages/pages/videos.html