"Puparium" Assembly

Today we assembled a bucket to store our pupa to maintain a constant temperature of 24/25C and humidity of ~60%. We hope that this will reduce the amount it takes for the pupa to mature and for the adult to emerge.

Our contraption consists of a large cardboard box with our black bucket (that we place our pupa in), a heater, a thermometer and an air lift that we took from the chamber. We placed it inside of the classroom (in the Admin building) at UBC Farm.

We now keep a spray bottle with apple cider vinegar next to the pod. We think it's working because we've seen female adults check out the pod every day. By checking out the pod, I mean the female fly sits on the outside of the pod for an extended period of time, usually more than ten or fifteen minutes.

We also added more compost to the pod, hoping that it will attract more females and we will get some EGGS!

Today I checked the pod at 12 noon. The maximum temperature in the last 24 hours was 20.5C and the minimum was 15.1C; the current temperature is 18.4C.

The black pupa bucket has a current temperature of 21.6C and 80% humidity. We'd like to get it up to a constant temperature of 25C and lower the humidity to close to 60%. I'll have to think up a way to get our numbers up/down.

We had 87 crawl-off today, with about 80% crawling around, indicating they have not quite reached pupation and are still just mature larvae. I noticed that when we placed the mature larvae in the sunlight, they became significantly more active.

Right now we are looking for a place to overwinter our larvae (of course, IF we get eggs, and right now it seems that this is a big if). Likely, we'll settle on a large fridge or freezer.

Apple Cider Vinegar?!

Back at the farm for the 2nd time today after reading a thread on which people were discussing options on attracting BSF females back to the pod (to lay eggs). Fermented corn is a common tool used to attract them, but a much more user-friendly option is apple cider vinegar, likely due to its similar sour smell.
Although we've had 2 gravid females, we have yet to see any eggs in the pod, so we will give this apple cider vinegar idea a shot. I hope to have an exciting update soon!

Pupa and Adults Yes, But Still No Eggs

Today, I found 4 adults in the pod- one was female, the others were male. They seem to like to sit on the insulation.
Today was very cloudy and somewhat chilly- the current temp is 15.4C.
We had another huge crawl-off, this time it was 93. 12 were very large (and we are assuming female) while the other 81 were small or medium-sized. Of the 81, 8 were moving and likely very mature larvae on the verge of pupation.
We've had about 250 larvae crawl-off in the past few days likely because we have started to feed them more. We have started to feed them more, so that the maggots continue to create a synonome to attract the female BSFs back to the pod, and also, at this point, we wish to speed up the maturation process so that we can get as many adults as possible before the summer is out.
In the pupa bucket, there was also 1 female and 3 males.
I've noticed the adults are quite laid-back, they seem to enjoy crouching on top of the sawdust and don't move around too much. However, when I poked a female with my pen, she immediately flew away (unfortunately in the opposite direction of the pod however).
I have yet to find any dead BSF adults in the pod- I'm hoping to find one almost as much as I'm hoping to find eggs because adults are very neat looking and I wish to take samples of each gender so that I can preserve them to use in potential future presentations.

A Near Escape

Well, the maggots have once again demonstrated that they are adept at escaping. Rylo put together a large black bucket and drilled holes in the top of the sides for ventilation. Then he put 3 layers of thick tape around the bucket, to cover the holes. However, the maggots were not to be thwarted. If we had not gone to check on them a few hours later, we would definitely have had escapees- one was working its way through the tape and would have soon seen the outside world.
This was especially an issue, as this particular black bucket was in the kitchen of UBC Farm. The unfortunate soul who opened up the next morning could very well have been greeted by hundreds of maggots crawling all around the kitchen. If this were the case, I'm pretty sure we would not be invited back . .
In other news, the power was once again off in the growth chamber (for no apparent reason). This has now occurred 3 times (when we randomly check) in the past week and a half. There was a strange smell in our growth chamber #4 because the air pump in our aquarium was not functioning (as it needs electricity), so we ran an extension chord from the aquarium to a plug outside of the growth chamber room.

. . but no eggs

We checked the pod today, at 9:45am. The maximum temperature in the last 24 hours (within the pod) was 35.9C and the minimum was 15.2C. The max temp outside was 34.3C, and the min was 15.5C.

We found 1 adult male in the pod.

The maggots were quite active, especially with the current temperature of 15.4C. They ate all of the char that we put in the pod late last week, except for the stalk. Also, all of the chicken feed in the cat dish was eaten.

There was no smell in the pod, which was great.

Still no eggs though.

Today was quite rainy.

1 adult male in the crawl-off bucket.

2 adult males in the bucket with the pupa.

An astonishing 98 pupa were in the crawl off bucket. This is the most crawl-off that we have ever had; it may be b/c we fed them the most that we have ever fed them- an entire, full bowl of chicken feed (on Wednesday). Plus the seed was soaked for 2.5 days. It definitely didn't hurt that the max temp was 35.9C- definitely hot enough for them to have crawled off.
We need to figure out how to heat and control the temperature of the pupa bucket- perhaps using infrared light and a thermostat?
Also, to end with an interesting note, apparently the density of a population makes a difference in the size of the larvae. The greater the density of the population, the smaller the larvae will be, on average.

A Warmer Day, A Happy Update

Today started off well; we found 2 adult males in the pod. Also, we have seen 2 gravid females (with swollen abdomens). Very good news!

So, we have 5-6 adults total now.

There are about 5 rather large fungus maggots in the pod, but the BSF shouldn't be adversely affected by them.

There were 15 crawl-off today. We have noticed that BSF tend to crawl off in the evening, likely because they are very dark-coloured and to limit predation.

We are finding at least 1 adult male in the crawl-off bucket each day.

At 11am today, after placing the pod in the sun, the temperature quickly climbed from 28.9C to 33.9C. The maggots were very active and feeding.

Last night, the minimum temperature was 17.2C which is low, but we still had quite a bit of crawl-off.

Rylo and I spent about 3.5 hours maggot-sitting and were able to discuss quite a few things as well as design the signs. I hope to have them produced very very soon.