As things cool down the BSFL numbers will decrease I think Jarred. I found they were generally attracted to our farms if there was a lot of juicy, sweet fruit scraps placed in there. I stopped popping fruit in & saw a reduction of subsequent larvae numbers. Hope that helps some mate.
Ah, fruit! That's a great point, Thank You Rob! I was thinking of you when filming this! Yes, we do indeed pop in the tops of strawberries, or half-rotted raspberries, etc. Perhaps we should change this!
We only had our lawn grass cuttings, inside a cranberry bog box (3x3x3), just grass clippings ... and minimal natural rain on top (and southward heat from the southside of garage). Natural decay, grass turns into moldy fibers, that neighborhood red worms come running (smelling the methane ... grass clippings smell = methane gas). Worms eat the grass clippings in peace and warmth (methane gas warm), lay tons of eggs. and just that we put back into the deep pan soil of the garden and top over 3 feet of the dug out garden soil. Most people have too much moisture in the compost, like making compost tea. Decide which you do. Either make and drain out (you do have that open bath draining out (?). Make compost tea, then bleached out hay fibers left to put/rototill into the soil/garden, ... or have normal humidity dry compost. No fresh cow pies etc. No hot chicken coop poop (too hot). Rabbit pellets ok. From what I have seen of people with worm problems - too wet, and no drainage using large containers that don't allow breathing all 6 sides (big plastic garbage bucket, bath tub, .... A raised garden compost heap will have worms running to it. Don't figure worms will run away. If you have good compost they come. If not, then you have some bad crap to deal with as the issue, ... and they will leave or not come. A pallet board with boards taken and nailed to a single side and nailed into a box bin of 4 sides, and open dirt soil works just fine. It allows worms to get in, water to drain into soil, and all 6 sides breathing. Just my experience ...
Yes, we have ours draining and since the soil has always remained moist we just keep the valve open at all times. Seems to maintain a good moisture level.
What is your soil type there? Soil column taken for 12 - 24 inches. Put in jar, water, shake up, let all rocks, pebbles, sand, silt, etc settle, ... measure % rocks, sand, silt, clays against chart. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/SoilTexture_USDA.png/625px-SoilTexture_USDA.png Would say you have some really loamy (humus rich) compost soil, lots of clay (disallowing draining) and not enough sand (rain runs through). What are your soil horizons as well ? www.eoi.es/blogs/mavisasare/files/2014/01/Soil-Layers-Image-Credit-Discovery1-235x300.jpg
Then other considerations. Do the bare hand dirt clench test. Dig way down, 12 inches into the compost. Pull up a compost ball. Water drip out ? Clench and release dirt ball - and does it crumble and fall apart or remain as dirt clay ball? Is the hand now as wet as the dirt ball ? Does the hand have an entire dirt smear, or just small humus particles on the hand here and there ? Compost should easily crumble and dry fall apart. Bare moisture - damp, not wet. Bare particles on hand. I suspect that the newspaper clippings are hydrophilic - like wood chips, and this is too much water absorption (like Off Grid Nation Tommy's in his garbage bin bucket). No wood chips, no paper, no paper shredding on top (sucking up rain and morning dew and keeping all the soil too moist and not releasing humidity and steaming evaporation. Also white top, (good) black soil underneath - not getting hot enough. Composting also in sunlight (temperature and heat). Worms like warm soil 70s-90s - like bee hives and bat mansions at 90+F. Flies and larvae like anything cold, warm, hot ... just as long as its a big edible and egg-laying soil is available. Also composting enzymes like warm compost (90s - 165F, limit of bacterial growth in food vector). Too cold, no good soil bacteria, no beneficial nematodes (tiny tiny worms - big worm food), no enzymes, no molds, mildews, fungus, no good soil to chew on, and lay eggs in. When you say mulch, I say lawn grass clippings (and potential fall leaves). When you say mulch are you saying manure (fresh or dried) or straw/hay (fresh or dried). Same issues of hydrophilic plant fibers and retaining too much moisture. Think should be way drier, and way warmer ... and pour some beer or molasses into the soil - Vit B yeasts and grain protein/sugars/starches, molasses iron/sugars for soil bacteria blooms.
@@johnlord8337 I know it's been a year it seems but if no one else got anything out of these comments I just want to say thanks for taking the time because you certainly gave me things to consider when I build my worm attraction area on the ground. That's my plan and I'm getting all the helpful info that I can. Thank you.
You might try trapping the BSF by putting a shallow dish bared even to the top of bin and put rotten fruit in dish. Empty it when the BSF climb in and feed to the chickens. Sort of like how you catch snails in the garden but on a bigger scale. Just a thought!
Adding in some ecology to this, its very possible your worms are not at the ideal population due to "bioload" which is the amount of life that can survive in a ecosystem(bathtub being the ecosystem), it is possible the black soldier flies are eating some of the food the earthworms would normally eat, thus taking up bioload the earthworms could have been using.
It is true that they both eat the same things, with the BSF larva also eating meats, etc. (but we don't put that in there). However, we've never run out of food. Though your point is taken - we might have had a higher worm population if the BSF were not there eating what the worms could have been eating.
I have been watching videos on worm bins this morning and Lia Andrews has a 'DIY worm composting bin''" video-- At around 7.20 she mentioned using window screens over her worm bin to keep out the BSF, as they compete for food in the worm bin. I would think you would be fine with the plywood covering, right, unless the flies can sneak in through an opening...?
As things cool down the BSFL numbers will decrease I think Jarred. I found they were generally attracted to our farms if there was a lot of juicy, sweet fruit scraps placed in there. I stopped popping fruit in & saw a reduction of subsequent larvae numbers.
Hope that helps some mate.
Ah, fruit! That's a great point, Thank You Rob! I was thinking of you when filming this! Yes, we do indeed pop in the tops of strawberries, or half-rotted raspberries, etc. Perhaps we should change this!
I found they normally turned up after mango skins & seeds were added here :/
Cheers mate.
Try covering the worm farm with shade cloth. You may need to place timber along the edges to keep them out.
We only had our lawn grass cuttings, inside a cranberry bog box (3x3x3), just grass clippings ... and minimal natural rain on top (and southward heat from the southside of garage). Natural decay, grass turns into moldy fibers, that neighborhood red worms come running (smelling the methane ... grass clippings smell = methane gas). Worms eat the grass clippings in peace and warmth (methane gas warm), lay tons of eggs. and just that we put back into the deep pan soil of the garden and top over 3 feet of the dug out garden soil.
Most people have too much moisture in the compost, like making compost tea. Decide which you do. Either make and drain out (you do have that open bath draining out (?). Make compost tea, then bleached out hay fibers left to put/rototill into the soil/garden, ... or have normal humidity dry compost. No fresh cow pies etc. No hot chicken coop poop (too hot). Rabbit pellets ok. From what I have seen of people with worm problems - too wet, and no drainage using large containers that don't allow breathing all 6 sides (big plastic garbage bucket, bath tub, .... A raised garden compost heap will have worms running to it. Don't figure worms will run away. If you have good compost they come. If not, then you have some bad crap to deal with as the issue, ... and they will leave or not come. A pallet board with boards taken and nailed to a single side and nailed into a box bin of 4 sides, and open dirt soil works just fine. It allows worms to get in, water to drain into soil, and all 6 sides breathing.
Just my experience ...
Yes, we have ours draining and since the soil has always remained moist we just keep the valve open at all times. Seems to maintain a good moisture level.
What is your soil type there?
Soil column taken for 12 - 24 inches. Put in jar, water, shake up, let all rocks, pebbles, sand, silt, etc settle, ... measure % rocks, sand, silt, clays against chart.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/SoilTexture_USDA.png/625px-SoilTexture_USDA.png
Would say you have some really loamy (humus rich) compost soil, lots of clay (disallowing draining) and not enough sand (rain runs through).
What are your soil horizons as well ?
www.eoi.es/blogs/mavisasare/files/2014/01/Soil-Layers-Image-Credit-Discovery1-235x300.jpg
Per the soil samples we had done by the Extension Service our soil is "Sandy Loam".
Then other considerations. Do the bare hand dirt clench test. Dig way down, 12 inches into the compost. Pull up a compost ball. Water drip out ? Clench and release dirt ball - and does it crumble and fall apart or remain as dirt clay ball? Is the hand now as wet as the dirt ball ? Does the hand have an entire dirt smear, or just small humus particles on the hand here and there ? Compost should easily crumble and dry fall apart. Bare moisture - damp, not wet. Bare particles on hand.
I suspect that the newspaper clippings are hydrophilic - like wood chips, and this is too much water absorption (like Off Grid Nation Tommy's in his garbage bin bucket). No wood chips, no paper, no paper shredding on top (sucking up rain and morning dew and keeping all the soil too moist and not releasing humidity and steaming evaporation. Also white top, (good) black soil underneath - not getting hot enough. Composting also in sunlight (temperature and heat). Worms like warm soil 70s-90s - like bee hives and bat mansions at 90+F. Flies and larvae like anything cold, warm, hot ... just as long as its a big edible and egg-laying soil is available. Also composting enzymes like warm compost (90s - 165F, limit of bacterial growth in food vector). Too cold, no good soil bacteria, no beneficial nematodes (tiny tiny worms - big worm food), no enzymes, no molds, mildews, fungus, no good soil to chew on, and lay eggs in.
When you say mulch, I say lawn grass clippings (and potential fall leaves). When you say mulch are you saying manure (fresh or dried) or straw/hay (fresh or dried). Same issues of hydrophilic plant fibers and retaining too much moisture.
Think should be way drier, and way warmer ... and pour some beer or molasses into the soil - Vit B yeasts and grain protein/sugars/starches, molasses iron/sugars for soil bacteria blooms.
@@johnlord8337 I know it's been a year it seems but if no one else got anything out of these comments I just want to say thanks for taking the time because you certainly gave me things to consider when I build my worm attraction area on the ground. That's my plan and I'm getting all the helpful info that I can. Thank you.
You might try trapping the BSF by putting a shallow dish bared even to the top of bin and put rotten fruit in dish. Empty it when the BSF climb in and feed to the chickens. Sort of like how you catch snails in the garden but on a bigger scale. Just a thought!
Once we have chickens again we will certainly look in to that!
I hope y'all are okay. I miss your videos.
Adding in some ecology to this, its very possible your worms are not at the ideal population due to "bioload" which is the amount of life that can survive in a ecosystem(bathtub being the ecosystem), it is possible the black soldier flies are eating some of the food the earthworms would normally eat, thus taking up bioload the earthworms could have been using.
It is true that they both eat the same things, with the BSF larva also eating meats, etc. (but we don't put that in there). However, we've never run out of food. Though your point is taken - we might have had a higher worm population if the BSF were not there eating what the worms could have been eating.
In my limited experience (and subsequent research), black soldier fly larvae will eat earthworm eggs.
Please do share a link, I couldn't find any place that said that! Thank you!
Not sure how to help, Jarred. I don't know if we have solder flies here in Maine. Hope your bin works well.
Blessings,
Jim
Thanks for watching anyhow!
I have been watching videos on worm bins this morning and Lia Andrews has a 'DIY worm composting bin''" video-- At around 7.20 she mentioned using window screens over her worm bin to keep out the BSF, as they compete for food in the worm bin. I would think you would be fine with the plywood covering, right, unless the flies can sneak in through an opening...?
There must be some opening. I would have expected the wood to be enough as well... but apparently not.
The ads for your channel block too much of the content
Of 6.2 million views you are the first person to say this is an issue. Not sure what to do to help.