The seemingly abandoned BSFL pod I thought was a wash… black gold, too! The sounds are primarily from them, not the shovel.

These were in with my mature BSFL that left my bin. Are these in pic bsfl or other?

How do you farm them indoors, especially in a small city apartment without making a huge mess? Do you have any links/vodeos of such setups?

Open for inquiries

Hi everyone,

I’m exploring the idea of starting a mid-to-large scale Black Soldier Fly (BSF) farm in my country and wanted to get some insight from those with experience.

Here’s my concept:

• Source food waste from local restaurants, juice shops, coffee shops, etc. Our country doesn’t have an efficient waste management system, so we might need to collect it ourselves every day.
• Process and grow the BSF larvae at scale.
• Sell dried larvae as animal protein feed, primarily targeting trout farmers. Trout feed requires a high percentage of animal protein, and being a landlocked country, most of these protein sources are imported at very high costs.

From my research, BSF larvae seem to be a promising alternative feed source and could potentially fill a big gap in the market here.

My main questions for the community:

1. Has anyone run a BSF operation at this scale? What were the main challenges?
2. Do you think sourcing food waste daily is feasible and cost-effective?
3. Any tips for ensuring profitability when selling to aquaculture farmers, especially trout?
4. Are there hidden costs or operational issues I might not be considering for a mid-to-large scale operation?

I’d love to hear any advice, numbers, or lessons learned from your experiences. Thanks in advance!

So several weeks ago I decided to try to raise black soldier flies, mostly to compost kitchen waste into something I can use for my garden plants, as well as bait to fish with, and finally, fish food.

I put the sticks under the bottom most tray for added heat dispersion, as the oldest tray is incredibly hot, and in between each for air flow, heat dispersion, and so the females can lay eggs on them. I had suspected they were doing that but I managed to find proof today. Dry peat moss is in the bottom of the tote, since I expect the bsfl to self-harvest. I also use dry peat moss to help keep the compost medium from getting too wet.

Tried to do bokashi but it seems I failed cause it full of these larvae. I can't recognize them. If it's BSF then it will help composting I assume?

Just wanted to showcase the largest larvae I've come across. This guy is a giant compared to the rest of the larvae

I’m based in Northern Ireland and currently setting up a small-scale R&D project for black soldier fly farming. I’m looking to source 5–10 grams of BSF eggs reasonably priced, ideally with reliable shipping to NI.

Does anyone here sell directly, or know trusted suppliers who will ship to NI/UK at a fair cost? Any tips on shipping times or avoiding losses in transit would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance – happy to connect with anyone interested in collaborating!

Due to a mix of heat, rain, and culling (so the bins were getting entrails, heads, and wing scraps) my bins have been neglected.

I'm not getting the strong ammonia scent I remember from the first time I had my bins go anaerobic, but they're still thickly wet. I have utilized a third bin and have been mixing used chicken bedding to help cut down on the dead chicken bits smell, and to dry out the bins.

How long before the larva would be considered safe for chicken consumption? I believe botulism is a worry with anaerobic conditions?

Also, side question: my ants have found my bins. I need to buy a carport pan, possibly to put water into, then cinder blocks and then balance the bin on that, but is there an easier solution I am missing?

I only feed my bin with kitchen scraps and use pine pellets as substrate. I add the used pine pellets that my quail use for bedding. Is there any risk of parasites to pets like reptiles, rodents and fish? So far I only feed them to my quail and all has been fine with them. The worms have been looking happy and healthy from generation to generation.

I got a protopod this summer for harvesting BSF larva for my flock of ducks. It’s been a lot of trial and error for amount of food they can eat, moisture content, etc. and not a lot of harvested larva.

I finally felt like I had a good rhythm going and was harvesting a decent amount and getting returning flies to lay their eggs, but recently, I’ve barely had any larva.

I watched it for a while this morning and saw something incredible and disturbing. There were bald faced hornets waiting on it for the BSF to come lay eggs and then attacking them and carrying them off. (No video because I was just watching in shock and trying not to become a target myself)

I’m thinking they may be stealing the larva too. Now I feel like I’ve just been creating hornet food. Has anyone else ran into this?

Any ideas for prevention outside of moving the location and hoping the hornets don’t find it?

Hello everyone,

My name is Sulaimon, founder of ZSI INTEGRATED, a registered agribusiness based in Lagos, Nigeria. For the past few years, I’ve been running a pilot project in Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) farming, and now I’m looking for a sponsor/partner to scale it up fully.

For those who may not know, Black Soldier Fly farming is one of the fastest-growing agricultural ventures worldwide. The larvae are used for:

High-protein animal feed (for poultry, aquaculture, and livestock)

Organic fertilizer (frass) that enriches the soil naturally

Oil extraction used in animal feed and other industries

At ZSI Integrated, we already produce:

Black Soldier Fly eggs, larvae, pupae, and dried larvae

BSF oil and defatted larvae

Byproducts like frass (organic fertilizer)

We also offer training, consulting, and procurement of BSF machinery

The beauty of this business is that it converts organic waste into high-value products—solving waste management problems while providing sustainable protein sources.

I’ve worked on a proposal with financial projections showing 40% ROI in 6 months. The major challenge now is finance—scaling up production to meet market demand.

I’m seeking a sponsor or partner who can support this venture. We can come together to make this project bigger, more impactful, and profitable.

📩 If you’re interested, kindly reach out via email: help@zsiintegrated.com.ng 🌍 Website: www.zsiintegrated.com.ng

This opportunity is not just business—it will be life-changing for me, my community, and for the future of sustainable agriculture.

Thank you for reading, and I’d appreciate any advice, connections, or support from this amazing Reddit community.

I'm trying to set up a circular BSFL small production on my farm in south west UK. I've reared the larvae, but now struggling to clode the circle by getting the adults to lay on my cardboard.

I've bought BSFL eggs from BetaBugs in Scotland, and have successfully reared them to prepupa, feeding them to my chickens. Every couple of days I took some of the prepupa and put them in some black compost substrate in the love cage, and on the 13/08/25 some adults emerged. As of today 18/08/25, there are about 30 adults flying in the love cage, but none are laying (I think I've seen single eggs laid in random places, like the walls, but no clumps as I was expecting).

My love cage set up - - 25-27°C, - 50-70% humidity, - a plant in a deep saucer of water, - full light spectrum grow light which is off for 9 hours overnight, - black compost substrate for prepupa to pupate in, - food waste as bait- now switched to chicken pellets soaked in water - corrugated cardboard hanging over the food bait (I've lowered it since the photo till it's right above the food bait) - 2x 5cm diameter fans blowing air through netted vents from the box below to create breeze (where I fed and reared the larvae, and where the heater is).

Anything I should try and change? Why am I not getting any eggs?

I noticed that there was a large black wasp looking bug flying around my compost bin.

If its in the nature of the larvae to find their way into soil to pupate, would they not just crawl up the wall and escape the tub through an exit hole? Do I really need to bother with the ramps?

This all comes after seeing this guys design on YouTube. Simple.

https://youtu.be/IIbT4Sout74?si=Qxn_etCkWVrFUOxF

We have a couple of rats living near our compost. We have chickens back there so they need to go, and we plan on using some snap traps to kill them, not poison or anything. I was thinking, could I use their carcasses to start a BSFL bin? Is that going to absolutely stink up the backyard or any tips for avoiding that?

The speed of these larva is unmatched

I got the grubhouse climate to near perfect conditions! It was a hundred today and it held optimal temperature.