Looking for good teacher on how to raise insects for laying flocks (meal worms e

Marjory Wildcraft

I'm no expert.  We have build fly traps due to the livestock were coated in them. Even essential oil sprays don't last long. Once the flies by the thousands are dead in the trap, just dump the buckets into the meat raising bird feeders.  When I say thousands, this trap will collect up to 100,000 flies!

There are some plans out on the web for "The King of Fly Traps".  This was a general DIY build from plans back in the 1800's.  The book is public domain I believe.   https://chestofbooks.com/home-improvement/woodworking/Community-Shop-Projects/Fly-Trap.html

The key is the bait once the traps are built. 

I have no experience on meal-worms or other insects.  Sorry.

Marjory Wildcraft

Hi BMaverick,

 

Wow, that trap is very impressive!  I found this photo showing it full of flyies here...

 

I also looked at the book, but I guess I am just a tad bit slow here... uh, how do the flies get in?  Do they come in from the bottom, go up the cone through the small hole at the top, and then can't figure out how to get back out again?  (I built a fish trap like that).

Is that how it works?  And how and where do you bait it?  Uh, honey...

Please tell! 

 

 



 

bmaverick

Marjory,

You are 100% correct.

Now to make this trap even more effective, make the overall height 24-inches.  Thus, not 2-inches of gap on the bottom, BUT 4-inches.  Plus, you can ALWAYS get lumber in 24-inches without needing to cut it. 

You can do one or two things with the top.  You can leave it nailed shut OR make it a hinged top to easily clean it out into a wheelbarrow.  Then take the dead flies to your meat bird buckets and mix in the feed.  It's an awesome addition.

When we left TN and moved north to zone-4/5, we left them all behind to our friends down there.  Flies are bad down south, but up north the flies are a different type, they BITE.

NOW, with all that is said and mentioned above, everyone is ready for STEP-2 - BAIT the TRAP.
This can be a long winded discussion that could go on for months here.  BUT, I'll let this linky here go into full details because your flies and my flies are in two different parts of the country.
http://schoolipm.ifas.ufl.edu/newtp14.htm

The linky even shows in clearer images how to make the, The King of Fly Traps.
http://schoolipm.ifas.ufl.edu/newtp14.htm

My hope is for others to consider this large trap.  To effectively reduce to almost zero, we had to have 4 of these made for the barn and barnyard.  For us, the fishy smell worked the best.  Get the scraps from an All-You-Can-Eat Friday fish fly joint.  Ask them to save the stinkiest of the fishy mess.  The grease drippings are GREAT!

bmaverick

oh, BTW, add handles to the sides to assist in moving it.  4-inches off the ground is great, grass grows too.  By the time you need to mow, it's almost touching the base preventing the flies from finding the entrance.  Thus, the 4-inches is a benefit.

sherryo

I am very interested in this topic and looking forward to other's experience.

I am not near any level of mastery yet, although I am working toward raising BFL.  We've got a healthy native population, who don't seem interested in my attempt to to lure them into a productive bin (yet).

Joanna Newcomer

I am by no means an expert, but I've raised mealworms, crickets, and wax worms on a small scale before. However not just for livestock feed. I add them to my families diet as well! Mealworms are the easiest by far and a great starting point for adding protein around the homestead.

bmaverick

Joanna,

AMAZING.

The saying goes, You are book smart or experienced smart.  Looks like you have both for this topic plus meals for the family.

Other and 2nd world countries and old fishermen who also eat their bait if ship wrecked or stuck out at sea have made meal worms an actual meal.  You are the first real person who I have heard to do this.

Up to 2016, some of the fast food places were using actual earth worm 'beef' in the burgers since the FDA classified worms as an all-beef product.  In stores, buying frozen beef that says 100% beef could have worms added too.

Anyways, it seems you have the detailed experience to press forward to help Marjory here.  You have taken plenty of courses and earned the badges to understand how things work.

I've only done the flying insects as shown in previous posts.  I would like to learn so much more.

-Bret

Joanna Newcomer

Thank you Bret,

I'll admit, the flying ones intimidate me a bit, at least as far as raising them. (And in all honesty, they drive me nuts!)

nora739

I'm very interested in this topic. I'm by no means an expert, but I have recently started raising mealworms to eat. It is a very easy source of protein to raise, compared to meat, and highly nutritious. They don't require much space. I have mine in a plastic box, about the size of a shoebox, in my bedroom. It doesn't take much time to maintain and it doesn't smell.

Marjory Wildcraft

Hi Bmaverick - I was at the local farm and garden stor and look what I saw!



It has the classic funnel on both top and bottom.  Only $16.

My main issue with it is...  I don't want to trap wees and wasps.  I like them very much.  The store didn't have a fly sized trap.

Thinking of you

 

 

 

 

 

bmaverick

Oh my Marjory.  $16 !  There are simple plans to make them for under $1.29 from a 2-liter soft drink plastic bottle.  Either ewe-tube or a simple search on DuckDuckGo.  Here is just one example.

bmaverick

btw, I believe that the King of Fly traps has to yield it's crown.

Why?

Well, I found a horse boarding stable with these!  Oh my, these look like the Daleks off of Dr. Who.
Looks like the mason jar on top has the fly bait that draws them up into the device.  Then they buzz around not knowing how to get out.  The mason jar lid must have pierced holes to allow just enough aroma out.  clever indeed.

Marjory Wildcraft

Yeah, that thing looks like a spaceship!  WOw...

ANd hey, I cold go buy a 2 litre of soda, put the soda in the compost pile, and use the bottle for trapping insects.   LOL

That is such a simple and interesting project.  Dang, I just don't have a lot of flies around here...  I might do that for my next weekend project anyway just to see what I catch.

That is the coolest BMaverick!

Oh ,you know what I noticed the other evening?  I was eating my dinner outside and a wasp came by and started eating some of my dinner too.  I was amused to see and you know wht it preferred?  The meat.  I was kind of shocked to see that.

It didn't eat much   SO I shared it with him/her.  I would shoo it away when it was my time for a bite, and then it came back when I was absorbed with the brocolli.

My husband was gone, so it was kind of like a date

 

Kathy

How do you raise mealworms?  Can you do it in winter? Want fresh protein for my chickens over winter.

Kathy

Date with wasp...lol .I have similar experience with my chickens.  Eat outside a lot, but when hamburger is on the menu, my girls go crazy!  They jump on my lap, arms, etc. and do everything to get bits of my hamburger.  So funny

Marjory Wildcraft

Hi Kathy, I've have been looking for a good presenter on growing meal worms for your flock of chickens for a long time....  or black soldier flyies, or...

I am looking for someone who can show us to to raise the emal worms, what they eat, etc. so yo can have enough for a flock of 6 chickens.  I've had several presnters at the Summits, but they never quite did what I asked for - not sure if you remeber that cowboy in Wyoming to crickets?  That was funny.

I've also attended some of the 'Edible Insect' symposiums and many people are working on innovativbe small scale, home based, insect production, but it is alll still experiemental from what I saw.

If anyone has a suggestion for who could do a great job teaching all of us, please send it along and I'll look into it.

 

 

Renee Ilse

I have done mealworms in the past, and was under the impression when I started that it was oh-so-easy.  Well, I didn't find it that easy.  I gave up on it after just a while, mostly because I had so many other things in the fire that I just couldn't devote that much time to the mealworms.  However, I have thought about revisiting it at some point in the future, so if I do, Marjory, I will let you know how my experience goes!  I did try something that Justin Rhodes had mentioned, which was to put a dead animal (in my case was one of my rabbits that expired) in a bucket with holes in the bottom and hang in the chicken pen.  When the flies laid eggs, the larva would fall out of the holes in the bucket into the chicken pen and the birds could feast.  This one didn't work quite the way I expected either, and I haven't heard Justin mention that one any more lately...