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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Black Soldier Flys

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>
  • To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Black Soldier Flys
  • Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:27:02 +0100




On 07/18/2010 02:43 PM, John D'hondt wrote:
I have been looking for a few years now how to get something like this started here on our farm in Ireland and found only a void.
One man complained about black soldier flies in a compost heap some 400 miles from where I am. . . ~john

John, do you know your climate zone there? In the US, BSF are native at least through Zone 7, though the northern edge of their range is really not "nailed down" with any certainty--folks north of 7 often find they have an ambient population to work with. I haven't done much research in BSF in other contries, other than learning that they are common in the tropics/sub-tropics, hence well suited to bioconversion there.

~Harvey

Hi Harvey,
the climate in Ireland can not so simply be caught in a "zone". Your zone's are land/continental zones while we have a sea/Atlantic climate. Maximum temperature does not go high above 20 C outside ever. The average difference between the coldest and the warmest month of the year is just 9 C. Night frost is possible in any month but really we have no very cold temperatures even in winter (although we had uniquely 5 months of solid frost last winter) That is the most typical thing here, that nothing is certain. The temperature can change from zero C to 20 in ten minutes and back to zero ten minutes later. That is hard on many plants except for a few that are used to it.

I have seen a very few black soldier flies in the wild but usually with more than a year in between observations. And I have not seen any interest in rotting vegetation. So if I want to start culturing these (with protection in a poly tunnel) I'd best find someone who has already got a colony established.
john





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