Hello Indiebio,
Is that your first name? What project are you planning with BSF?

You are very right about the house fly. But it has also its advantages in a project for low budget solutions for feed production by rural communities in Ghana. We bought land in the bush, far from any homesteads, for hygienic reasons.

The technology of breeding house fly larvae in larger quantities is much simplier, cheaper and faster than with BSF.
- the innoculation is totaly natural: you do not need a breeding facility for adults and their egg collection. Everything happens in an open facility by the flies naturally present in the vicinity.
The down side is that the flies are only active on ground level. So you you need a lot of space if you want to breed larger quantities.
- I have the impression that the risk of contamination (parasites, predatory insects, moulds...) of the larvae themselves (which causes failure of harvesting) is much lower than with BSF colonies. The required hygiëne in the case of BSF breeding is much higher making this venture more expensive. Namely, investments in the infrastructures are more demanding (seperate insectarium and larvarium) and you have a significant higher risk of failed harvests.

Off course, you could work with BSF compost boxes, with innoculation by wild BSF adults and larvae growth in one box. But again, the natural entrances of the boxes bring the risk of contamination. The BSF larvae seem to be quite vulnerable in the tropics. What is your opinion on this? Am I exaggerating this problem?

I am planning to do BSF breeding in the future. My focus in that project is to attain a sustainable free resource that is easily available in large quantities. The activity needs to be economic sound. So, I have no interest to work with the obvious resources such as PKM, fruit/vegetable spoils (from the market/restaurants), brewery waste and such. Virtually all organic waste streams have a monitary value for the feeding of the livestock. And once you need to buy your substrate, I can not make profit from the BSF larvae harvest.

In my case I want to work with the discarded cacao shells of the local cacao farmers. It is totally for free because the farmers do not use it for anything else. I intend to solve the high cellulose/lignine content of the cacao pods with a mushroom cultivation program of the Pleurotus Floridae. That will take some time to organise.

In the meantime, I want to invest in a housefly facility. To experiment with resources from the community itself. Namely, the animal manures and the faecal sludges which are already collected from the septic pits at the homesteads. To motivate the community that 'added value' can be created for this waste stream. And the cheapest way is still the housefly rearing. At least, that is my impression.

Would also like to hear from Chris.
Yours sincerely,
Ellen

Hi Ellen

Looking forward to Chris's reply on this, I'm about to start on a BSFL project myself.

I would caution against using house flies. They are disease vectors: unlike the BSF they need to eat as adult flies. I believe this is an important distinction to make with the community and for this reason would not use house flies to sensitise them.

When I saw the BSF for the first time it made it clear to me that it's a whole different ball game than house flies which added to my acceptance. I would start with BSF from the beginning.

Hope that helps!
B

Dear Chris,
I have a small farm in the Eastern region of Ghana. We want to build a business specializing in the production of young BSF maggots to distribute to partner farmers who will mature them for layers. We will focus on the waste stream of the cacao farmers.
Our first action point is a simple housefly facility (natural inoculation on animal manure, concept advised by Marc Kenis of CABI) to sensitize the community for the potential of fly larvae.
I was wondering if it is workable to mix with human faecal sludge. It is an easy available resource. I see many studies on the growth of BSF on human faecal sludge. But can housefly also thrive on this resource?

Thank you for your advise.
Ellen