LopaPal
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 7:54 pm

Soldier fly larve escape bin when it rains

Hi,

I'm new to composing. I have a Jora rotating bin. All summer things were going great with a good number of soldier fly larve doing their things. However, the first day it rained, they all escaped and are now covering my patio. Is this normal? Is there a way to stop it?

Thanks!
Lopa
image1.jpeg
image2.jpeg

User avatar
applestar
Mod
Posts: 30504
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

How do you want to stop it? I mean this isn’t a BSF “composter/digester” but just incidentally hosting them, right?

It’s normal for them to find their way into and live in a compost pile, but too many of them would eat up the compost and you will have less finished result to use in the garden.

My tendency here would be to just gently sweep them up and toss them in a mulchy part of the garden, or if you have dogs, I would put them where the dogs poop since they can help digest the feces.

If you want, you could just sweep them up and put them back in the composter. I guess another option is to set up a different composter/digester for things you can’t put in regular compost and put these guys to work. (I don’t do this because it gets too cold here in the winter and I don’t want to keep them indoors. I prefer to use Bokashi.). I think when they are coming out of the composter, they are probably ready to pupate, but the adults will lay eggs and start the cycle again.

Oh, another possibility if you fish, etc. or have use for the BSF larvae/pupae is to collect them and use them — for fishing or feeding fish, poultry, etc. — I believe if you put them in a proper medium, they will pupate.

User avatar
rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

The Jora is a tumbling composter, right? Over the years we have had MANY people writing in about difficulties with tumblers. They tend to have not enough holes, so it is difficult to keep your compostables properly aerated and drained.

Having so many BSF larvae is an indication that your composting materials are staying too wet. You can start correcting that by adding more "browns" like fall leaves, shredded paper, etc. to absorb some of that. (You do know about "greens" and "browns," right? There are some good intro to composting threads at the top of this section.) You probably need to drill some extra holes in your composter as well.

A tumbler is also a batch composter. You fill it up with compostables, then don't add more until that batch is done and the tumbler is emptied. If you keep adding new materials and mixing them, you will never have finished compost to use. So you still have to have somewhere else to collect composting materials or you have to have two tumblers.

LopaPal
Newly Registered
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 7:54 pm

Thank you. This is super helpful.



Return to “Composting Forum”