Al, the black soldier fly is a wasp-like critter that lays eggs in rotting carcasses. The lavae that grows burrows/tunnels through a carcass really fast and eats basically anything that earthworms don’t eat. They produce thousands of eggs and quickly grow. At a certain stage, the larvae stop eating, lose their mouth organ, and start climbing upwards to separate themselves from the mess to finish out their “gestation”. At that point they look like a little worm-like cocoon shell thing that just wiggles. I forget the numbers, but I think they are something like 86% protein. And since they separate themselves, they basically harvest themselves. Just build a ramp for them to climb up and a bucket to fall into and they harvest themselves as an incredible chicken/fish food. Mix with some greenery and you don’t need any supplements.
Here, where they are native, it is pretty easy to start up too since it’s pretty easy to build your houses and then lure wild flies to lay their eggs their.
They also work very well with earth worm vermiculture since the two species eat different kinds of material. Usually worms are kept under the fly boxes.
Kristijan, you’re hillarious. Thanks.
And I’m with you on the chicken thing. They don’t usually get a grave and head stone around here either. Maybe if they died of some disease, but then they get composted or put in the bio-gas digesters.
We can a lot of chicken here. Erika uses it for one of her MRE’s. Butcher a chicken. Keep all the good organ meat, feet, heads, bones, etc.Cut it up into pieces small enough to get in the jar, add a T of salt. And pressure can it for a while. You end up with fully cooked meat ready for any use (except fried chicken) with a very rich broth and you don’t lose anything. Works great for old birds too.
Jason, Did that cow need to “get a shot” or did it need “to get shot”.
I had a cow that needed to get shot too, and it wasn’t worth anything after that.
Steve, sorry about the stings. We’ve been using lavender oil and honey on stings. Seems to work well. Getting stung is kind of a way of life around here I guess. The worst are these relatively new european hornets and japanese hornets.
Garry, when did the Europeans bring the yellow jackets here? I always assumed they were native because around here, tradition has it that the Creek indians would dig up the nests and make yellowjacket soup. We’ve done it ourselves actually. It’s a sweet soup with the honey and brood and paper all adding to the mix. Usually it is made with native pumpkin or squash (seminole squash). Of course, many of the native tribes were pretty good at using whatever came along I guess.
It’s fun to melt lead and pour it into a yellow jacket nest and then dig it up.
They can be quite large and spread out.