So Excited! Successful Black Soldier Fly Breeding Indoors

[JaxyGirl]

I know this is probably silly but I'm really excited that I was able to breed Black Soldier Flies indoors and I just fed my first grubs to my chams today and they loved them!!

This project started because I heard about the great health bennifits of black soldier fly larvae so I ordered 200 online. I found that although my chams like them they're expensive and really weren't an option as a staple feeder.

I live in Maine and black soldier flies aren't native here (from what I've read) because it's just too cold for them. So in the middle of winter..I was very curious about the grubs and what the flies looked like. Just as an experiment I wanted to find out what would happen if I tried to hatch out the soldier flies and breed them in the house (in my office.. Lol!!). To my huge surprise it worked! I now have at least 1,000 baby larvae of various sizes which hopefully will lead to a second generation of adult flies that will continue the cycle.

I was really surprised how easy they are to breed, keep and feed. The grubs have very little smell...it's an earthy smell...kind of like fresh dirt (I think it depends on what you feed them ?? ) I mainly feed the grubs used coffee grounds and chicken feed along with some vegatable food scraps and they are growing fast! I think the adult flies are rather pretty (like a small black wasp) and they don't look like your average fly at all. The adults don't eat but they do drink fresh water from a sponge.

Raising black soldier flies has been really fun for me and my chams love to eat the larvae and they go crazy over the flies. I also like knowing what my grubs are eating. If anyone is interested in how to raise them I would be happy to share

 

[alphakenc]

Congratulations JaxyflyGirl...supply by demand

 

[MSMorgan]

Congrats! Sadly enough I had a colony going, but Lucky just wouldn't eat them as pupa or flies. Maybe I'll try again this year. Glad to hear that your guys like them.

 

[JaxyGirl]

Thanks!!! I knew you guys would get it My boyfriend thinks I'm a little crazy because this is all happening in my office. He's a very patient guy....
I've been kinda obsessed about my black soldier flies...lol!
I've never raised any type of feeder before but I'm tired of spending so much money on feeders and having them die during shipment. And it's such a hassle getting them shipped up to Maine especially during the winter.
I also just hatched some itty bitty baby crickets and teeny tiny super worms and I'm working on raising a dubia colony....
I'm not sure if any of them will survive past the first couple of weeks but so far so good. It might be beginners luck..but it's been fun trying.

 

[Vanjan]

Hi JaxyGirl!
I am really interested how you keep BSF indoors. Last year i was able to hatch the flies but no eggs were layed on the cardboard pieces that i put in there.
I have about 200 larvae going on again. What temps are you keeping them? what is the medium? how wet do you keep it? (I found if it is too wet the little worms climb every surface and escape)

 

[trickedoutbiker]

I was interested in getting some Phoenix worms going in my place as well. Was going to hatch lots of them into flies, and feed those off as well as the worms. Phoenix worms are like little garbage disposals, and will eat pretty much anything. I planned on using a variety of shredded vegetables like I do for my crickets. I've used just the worms as feeders before and never fed them or hatched anything into a fly (because the side of the Phoenix worm container told me not to feed them), but I'm sure I can do it as I have done some research and it sounds fairly straightforward. What I wanted to ask though is: how do you know when they are ready to pupate, and what do they do when they are ready? I've read mixed statements regarding this. Some people say they need dirt to burry down and perform their process... I've heard others say that they will do it without any dirt, or anything at all - like in a regular container or what-have-you. I've read that some people keep them in the little PHOENIX WORM container they come in, and others say you gotta move them out of that container or none will turn to flies. I've also read that they need light, whereas other places stated to keep it dark..... The only thing I'm certain of is to keep the temps warm at all times, and how to feed the larvae. Can you fill me in on the pupating process? Like, the easiest and best way to get them to turn to flies? And once all wrapped up, how long does it take for the flies to emerge on average? I know you are new to this as well, so how did YOUR process results go? Lots of them die off? How many hatched? Fill me in!?

I planned on ordering some in about 3-4 weeks when my new cage setup arrives. Excited to try the flies out too. I've heard that chameleons go bananas over them.

 

[kiwilulu]

I am curious about this.
Subscribing to the thread.

 

[JaniP]

I'd love to know how you did it as well!

 

[KLowery88]

I've been looking into getting a BSF colony set up, so I'd definitely be curious about your steps! The larvae are such a healthy feeder and my Bearded Dragon loves them.

 

[JaxyGirl]

Hi JaxyGirl!
I am really interested how you keep BSF indoors. Last year i was able to hatch the flies but no eggs were layed on the cardboard pieces that i put in there.
I have about 200 larvae going on again. What temps are you keeping them? what is the medium? how wet do you keep it? (I found if it is too wet the little worms climb every surface and escape)

What I did to hatch the Larvae was to transfer them into a Sterlite 6 quart container measuring approx 14" L x 8" W x 4" H.
These are the steps I did:
1) I put approx 2" of dampened coco fiber bedding (wet but not soaking) in the bottom of the container. I got mine from the pet store
2) I made a mixture of Used Coffee Grounds, Damp Non Medicated Chicken Feed and a little Brown Sugar. I then mixed that into the coco fiber. The mixture should be similar to wet dirt but not muddy or soupy. Then I dumped my container of soldier flies ( the container the soldier fly Larvae came in) into the mix of coco fiber, used coffee grounds and brown sugar and gently mixed the larvae in. If the mixture is too wet and soupy the larvae won't be happy and they will crawl right up the sides to get out. You want them to stay in there and pupate.
3) Next I got a large (clear) Sterlite Bin (My large Sterlite bin is 95 quarts measuring approx 24" L x 18" W x 19" H) I'm sure something a little smaller would work but You want to get a bin that is Tall and wide enough for the flies to fly in and out of after they hatch out because this will also become the laying bin in the future.
I then put about two inches of lightly dampened coco fiber on the bottom of the large bin. Then I put the uncovered hatching bin (small bin above) on the coco fiber inside the large Sterlite Bin. (Also prevents escapees from getting out)
Don't put a lid on the small hatching bin because you want the hatching flies to be able to fly up and out of it.
Put the cover on the large Sterlite bin with the smaller hatching bin in it. I didn't put any holes in the cover of the large Sterlite bin (at that time) because I felt that enough air could get under the sides. By doing this it kept the humidity up inside so the adults could hatch out easily.
4) Then put the whole thing in a room with natural light with temps between 70-80 degrees and wait for the Larvae to pupate and hatch. I think the day and night time cycles helps them hatch faster..at least from my observation?
Im going to post some pics of my set up tomorrow.

 

[JaxyGirl]

I was interested in getting some Phoenix worms going in my place as well. Was going to hatch lots of them into flies, and feed those off as well as the worms. Phoenix worms are like little garbage disposals, and will eat pretty much anything. I planned on using a variety of shredded vegetables like I do for my crickets. I've used just the worms as feeders before and never fed them or hatched anything into a fly (because the side of the Phoenix worm container told me not to feed them), but I'm sure I can do it as I have done some research and it sounds fairly straightforward. What I wanted to ask though is: how do you know when they are ready to pupate, and what do they do when they are ready? I've read mixed statements regarding this. Some people say they need dirt to burry down and perform their process... I've heard others say that they will do it without any dirt, or anything at all - like in a regular container or what-have-you. I've read that some people keep them in the little PHOENIX WORM container they come in, and others say you gotta move them out of that container or none will turn to flies. I've also read that they need light, whereas other places stated to keep it dark..... The only thing I'm certain of is to keep the temps warm at all times, and how to feed the larvae. Can you fill me in on the pupating process? Like, the easiest and best way to get them to turn to flies? And once all wrapped up, how long does it take for the flies to emerge on average? I know you are new to this as well, so how did YOUR process results go? Lots of them die off? How many hatched? Fill me in!?

I planned on ordering some in about 3-4 weeks when my new cage setup arrives. Excited to try the flies out too. I've heard that chameleons go bananas over them.

Hi I posted above for the set up I used and how I was able to get the black soldier flies to hatch and what I used as a medium. It seemed to work really well. I did a lot of reading and watched a lot of YouTube videos in foreign languages...Lol! to come up with the bedding I used to hatch them in which is a mixture of Damp Coco fiber, used coffee grounds, Non-medicated chicken feed (wet the feed so it forms a mash) and brown sugar. This gives them something to feed on till they pupate and hatch. Another thing that I found is that the Larvae love eating this mixture and it doesn't smell! And the adult flies love to lay their eggs on it so it ended up being a win win situation. The mixture should be like damp potting soil but not soupy. (Just a quick note, don't worry if the mixture gets moldy when the larvae are in it. It seems to be just part of the process and doesn't cause any harm)
The room temp I hatched them at was around 70 degrees. See above for more details. The larvae were about medium sized when I got them mid January. It took about a week and a half to start hatching flies.
The Fly pupa are black, thin and long. They kind of look like black dried up Larvae. You can tell they are ready to pupate when the larvae turn really dark and don't move much.
I'll post some pics of my setup and go into more detail tomorrow about how I got the Flies to breed

 

[Vanjan]

Thanks for the details!
I also found they only are able to climb when worms are wet. I like the idea of double boxes. since the outer coconut is not wet they will never escape
For feeding i found they love things with sugar. These little worms devour slices of apple within a few hours but i had to remove the leaf of kale after two days because they were not touching it.
How do you get the worms without letting all the flies get away? Maybe a little door on the side of the big container would do the job?

 

[JaxyGirl]

I've seen a couple of videos where people have been able to hatch, breed and raise the worms in the same bin. But after doing a bunch of reaserch I found out that for the best breeding success the flies need to fly because some of the breeding actually occurs in mid air. I've seen them breed in my setup and it can be pretty rough and tumble and the joined flies will fall to the bottom of the cage.
Other couplings will sit quietly tail to tail for hours.

I have my fly bin inside a Reptibreeze type of screen cage it's about
42" H x 19 "W x 21" L
I cut a hole in the lid of my Sterlite bin approx 5" x 6" so the flies can fly in and out of it and into the screen cage. The cage is the same layout as a Reptibreeze with the little door on the bottom that flips up for cleaning and the large screen door that opens out. I actually removed the floor of the cage and replaced it with screen (easy to do with a screen repair kit from any hardware store) I then turned the cage over so the top is now the bottom. The small door now opens down and the big door is on the bottom and still opens out. This makes it easy to get into the fly bin that I put in the bottom of the cage. It also makes it accessible for maintenance. When I need to get into the bin the flies fly to the top of the cage.
The flies are pretty easy to catch if they eascape. They don't fly as good as a house fly. They are much slower and will head to the brightest light in the room or window where they can easily be scooped up and put back into the cage.

 

[JManuel82]

I know this is probably silly but I'm really excited that I was able to breed Black Soldier Flies indoors and I just fed my first grubs to my chams today and they loved them!!

This project started because I heard about the great health bennifits of black soldier fly larvae so I ordered 200 online. I found that although my chams like them they're expensive and really weren't an option as a staple feeder.

I live in Maine and black soldier flies aren't native here (from what I've read) because it's just too cold for them. So in the middle of winter..I was very curious about the grubs and what the flies looked like. Just as an experiment I wanted to find out what would happen if I tried to hatch out the soldier flies and breed them in the house (in my office.. Lol!!). To my huge surprise it worked! I now have at least 1,000 baby larvae of various sizes which hopefully will lead to a second generation of adult flies that will continue the cycle.

I was really surprised how easy they are to breed, keep and feed. The grubs have very little smell...it's an earthy smell...kind of like fresh dirt (I think it depends on what you feed them ?? ) I mainly feed the grubs used coffee grounds and chicken feed along with some vegatable food scraps and they are growing fast! I think the adult flies are rather pretty (like a small black wasp) and they don't look like your average fly at all. The adults don't eat but they do drink fresh water from a sponge.

Raising black soldier flies has been really fun for me and my chams love to eat the larvae and they go crazy over the flies. I also like knowing what my grubs are eating. If anyone is interested in how to raise them I would be happy to share

I 100% would like any and all info you have on this project. I really want to give it a proper try….

 

[MissSkittles]

I 100% would like any and all info you have on this project. I really want to give it a proper try….

The OP hasn’t been around since 2017, so it’s unlikely you’ll get any response. However, it looks like she went over all she did. Good luck! Do let us know if you have any success. I’ve bred several types of bugs, but not bsfl.