Accidental Fly Farmer

Back in late 2021 I attended the BCC Master Composters' course. Aside from having an absolutely lovely time hanging out with fellow composters and gardening types, at two of Brisbane’s best community gardens, we were treated to some splendidly inspiring speakers! Renae McBrien, wow!!

Whilst I have many systems to recycle my organic waste, I didn’t have a Black Soldier Fly (BSF) Farm. Motivated by their inclusion in the course, and to create a free food source for my chook, I thought I’d give it a go. I followed my notes from the course and Costa’s guide https://youtu.be/SbzedftrQJw

Unfortunately my fly farm was a failure. I gave up!

Fast forward a year and my Bokashi bin, evicted from the garage by my family due to its aroma, had started to disintegrate in the elements, thus creating access points for black soldier fly clearly! My chook was in heaven, the BSF larvae was abundant. She knew where to stand once a week when I took out my Bokashi feed!

Recently I refilled my bathtub worm farm in a bit of a haphazard fashion. On top of some dried out hedge trimmings, I chucked in some food scraps from the vege shop, mostly cabbage leaves and a bit of fruit, two buckets of coffee grounds, a bag of manure, and two bags of food waste from a café which turned out to be mostly egg shells. I covered the lot with more dried leaves from my stash of hedge trimmings and left it. When I checked in on it a few weeks later it was abundant, with BSF larvae. This has never happened before, in several years of using the system?

Perhaps, like with compost worms, once you establish them they’re with you for good? Several years ago I spotted that the Community Compost Hub (of old) at Downfall Creek had drilled holes in the tops of their bins. I did this too. In came the BSF! Ever since, after an initial battle for territory with housefly larvae, they have always been present in my garden.