Go green - breed maggots

[shortly]

Thought some ppl might find this an interesting starting point

Maggots are being promoted as one of the most efficient ways of feeding farm animals and saving global fish stocks.

A British company is farming flies to produce the fly larvae that can replace dehydrated fish meal.

Fly farmer Jason Drew says a third of all fish caught globally become livestock, aquaculture and pet food, but he believes the fish catch could be completely replaced by the fly product.

Mr Drew says his maggots are fed waste from abattoirs, like blood and guts, to produce the super-high protein feed at great speed.

"One kilo of fly eggs will turn into about 420 kilos of protein. At the end of 72 hours, harvest them just before they pupate," he said.

"Our larger factories will produce 100 tonnes a day of larvae.

"That's 100 tonnes of fish we don't have to take from our seas, and 100 tonnes of blood and guts we don't have to pour into our landfill."

Mr Drew has written a book called The Story of the Fly and How It Can Save the World.

http://www.abc.net.a...12/s3646656.htm

Edited December 4, 2012 by shortly

[Yavimaya]

blood and guts go into landfill?

surely all the blood is collected for blood and bone and other products.

Surely the guts are all used in cat and dog food?

[Halcyon Daze]

Edited December 5, 2012 by Halcyon Daze

[shortly]

Some processing plants certainly do, but many dont simply because of economics, its more economic to bury the waste than transports it for further processing even with a few $ per ton for the waste.

[Stillman]

when I was a kid we used to hang whole Cat fish over the water in certain areas of the creeks the maggots would fall into the water feeding the fish we used them like burly I guess. Its a good way to catch Spangled perch when your ten thats for sure.

Edited December 5, 2012 by Stillman

[waterboy 2.0]

I use to sell maggots to fishing shops, in england they also feed em dye to get different colours...lol

The guts goes to landfill (Paunch I think they call it), issues with bacteria going into pet food. To make blood and bone needs energy - hence the economics

Edited December 5, 2012 by waterboy

[Bigred]

i used to breed maggots when i had my aquaculture running i just feed them my scraps worked out quite well

shortly maybe those trays i gave you could be used to breed them on a comercial scale

[Bigred]

i loved catching spangled perch in my local stream its a shame now its covered in weeds and full of shopping trolleys

and it used to be full of rainbows gudgeon's , swordtails , even the ocasional jungle perch i cant believe

we let it get like that would be good to breed fish and release them into the stream's

[shortly]

I was thinking of using the trays for water cress, flooded with water pumped up from some 1000L stock troughs i have kicking around.

Now i just need to construct a soldier fly farm set up to feed some fish in the troughs. I'm thinking Scortum sp or Tandanus?

Junglies where were you trolley fishin?

[Bigred]

in brookfield near kenmore high there is a scout den it is called moggil creek it runs from gold creek reservoir

when i was young it was packed with fish even the occasional lung fish

[Amazonian]

Greg Muller, the guy in the link should have titled it.... "Go Green, Farm maggots", ? Or "Go green..Breed flies", Don't you think?... because maggots are the babies, and maggots don't breed.?! But good article

[brokenswan]

In SA they sell maggots for fish bait, they call them 'Gents' for some reason. There's a specific fish that is caught on them but the name eludes me...

[bℓσωηG]

An awesome food for chickens , roadkill or fish frames can be hung up high and the chickens hang around all day waiting for the maggots to fall to the ground when theyre fat and juicy...

[waterboy 2.0]

The english call em Gents in the UK (sound better than maggots...lol) and use em for "coarse fishing". Was a good way to get roadkill out of the way and make a few bucks, until the devils (at the time) found em or an eagle found the carcass.

Finish them off on bran meal.

Edited December 6, 2012 by waterboy

[Amazonian]

Gents which is short for gentiles.

[brokenswan]

Thanks for the info on 'gents'...never to old to learn! I remembered the fish too...it was Tommy Rough..

[vual]

when I was a kid we used to hang whole Cat fish over the water in certain areas of the creeks the maggots would fall into the water feeding the fish we used them like burly I guess. Its a good way to catch Spangled perch when your ten thats for sure.

 

Stillman, that is brilliant!!! Never heard of that but i love it, what a great idea!

[gecko]

I always used to eat the catfish and use carp for that.

Catfish Tandanus tandanus are good to eat, but are a protected species in Murray River now and legally can't be taken.

I like Black soldier fly as a better option, they don't tend to stink as much,

are not a niusance like houseflies, blow flies and dunny budgies.

and are hardly seen when the turn into adults.

BSF are a better option than compost worms for household foodwaste.

Paunch is excellent food/bedding for compost worms, they thrive in it.

[kadakuda]

check out permie sites, they use fly larva in etups a lot. great composters adn great protein source. can even setup automatic feeder setups hanging over your pond/tubs. they are likely going to be our main source of "meat" for fish food once our ponds are dug.