Black Soldier Fly or anaerobic composting

[smokensqueal]

I have a 55 gallon drum that I compost in. It's go many holes and it usually works fine. I use it because I can keep the critters out of my food scraps. Usually I'll let things compost in there for a while then put move it to my larger compost bin where it can finish up. The critters usually don't bother stuff that's already partially composted. Anyway to get to my question.

The other day I went out to turn it and noticed it was very wet. I'm not sure if I added to much greens or if the heavy rain we had a few days before blew into it and made it that wet. Well after I turned it, it did have a foul smell. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't the normal smell I get out of it. So I thought it turned to anaerobic on me. But then I noticed all these "maggots" in it. I started looking them up and sure enough I believe the are the Black Soldier Fly maggots or larva. So now I'm trying to figure out what I should do.

Should I try and straighten this out back to an aerobic compost or should I just let the Black Soldier Fly do their thing?

[soil]

depends, do you want compost, or waste reduction?

[smokensqueal]

Well, when you compost aren't you getting waste reduction? I'm typically looking for compost. But isn't the result of these Black Soldier fly larva just as good as compost? Just a little different? Kink of like worm castings?

[top_dollar_bread]

Well, when you compost aren't you getting waste reduction? I'm typically looking for compost. But isn't the result of these Black Soldier fly larva just as good as compost? Just a little different? Kink of like worm castings?

IMO BSFL will make good composted manure, if done right (C/N, aerobic). To me worm casting is a manure; just like cow, duck, rabbit ect, except worms poop & prefer to breed with the same balance diet as aerobic microbes.(for the most part)

Just like compost, manures can have different nutrient values depending on the animal, critter or insects diet.
Composting is I believe a breeding ground and the end product, discrete if you will, of the microorganisms who eat (break down the organic matter and other microbes).
when done properly the end product works as a inoculant and soil conditioner who will feed balance nutrients to our plants. If done wrong and harvested when it isnt ready, it may have a negative affect on soil and crops.

Most manures are high in N (due to diet and what was used by the owners body) so it contains a C/N ratio not suitable for healthy growth and anaerobic microbes due to lack of oxygen in (most??) digestive systems.
So its best to compost (properly), before we apply to crops.
I could be wrong on all of this, but IMO the BSF larvae will be similar to compost and work fine as a soil amendment/conditioner if you follow proper aerobic composting practices.
People use poop from all kinds of animals & critters to feed the soil: like crickets, fish, bats, goats, maggots, worms ect.. IMO Nature uses all of lifes discretes and with the help of other life forms to balance it out, for healthy growth.

[cynthia_h]

There was a rather extended discussion re. composting with Black Soldier Fly larvae (BSF larvae) last summer/fall at viewtopic.php?t=9672

Two sentences from the article:

"A thriving maggot bin reduces kitchen and restaurant waste by 95 percent, according to research conducted by ESR International. That means 100 pounds of food scraps will produce 5 pounds of soil amendment and 20 pounds of well-fattened larvae."

This is a much greater reduction of waste than the usual aerobic compost, which seems to reduce by approx. 75% to 80% the bulk of the input in the form of useable output.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[gixxerific]

Like cynthia said I remember reading that BSF will compost your waste VERY quickly and very thoroughly.

Here are a couple of good reads that might interest you. By the way BSF will not affect you in any way. They don't even have a working mouth. They don't bite, don't infest houses, don't carry disease. But there larvae will turn your pile of whatever into nothing in short time. When the larvae grow up they leave how great is that.

Check these out if you'd like:

https://blacksoldierflyblog.com/bioconversion-dr_paul_olivier/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetia_illucens

[smokensqueal]

Thanks for all the replies. I guess what I'm trying to figure out and even after reading many different blogs/post/article BSF larva require a high level of moisturizer. So what I guess I'm confused about is how all these things talk about the moisture but it seems that any thing higher then what I normally have like what I started to run into now starts to have a smell to it. So to compost with BSF are you going to have to have a pile/bin that has some sort of smell (not over powering) to it and if so how do you stop it from going over the line to anaerobic?