Introduction to the ecological habits of maggots and the construction techniques of rearing facilities

Ecological habits of maggots To successfully rear maggots, before rearing them we first need to understand their ecological habits.

In biological terms, flies are “holometabolous insects”, and in their lifetime they go through 4 stages: egg, larva (maggot), pupa (fly seed) and adult (fly). Among these, the egg stage lasts 1 day, the maggot stage lasts 4~6 days, the pupa stage lasts 3~4 days, and 4 days after the fly emerges it reaches sexual maturity and begins mating and laying eggs. A fly lives at most 1 month. In actual production, each batch of breeder flies should be culled promptly after 20~25 days of rearing. Under artificial rearing conditions, as long as the temperature is suitable, flies can reproduce year-round. The flies we commonly see are mostly red-headed flies and house flies, but by comparison, house flies have better adaptability than red-headed flies and eat a wider range of foods, so here we choose to rear house flies., If you are raising maggots for the first time, it is best to buy fly seed from a specialized maggot farm. After rearing them for some time, you can then breed the fly seed yourself. Below, we will explain in detail how to rear maggots. First, let us look at the construction of the rearing facilities. Construction of rearing facilities Construction of the breeder fly house The breeder fly house is specially used to rear adults, that is, flies. Generally 20~40 sq m is enough. You can renovate an old building, which can also save costs. The house should be fitted with screen doors and screen windows to prevent the flies from escaping. If rearing in winter, heating equipment is needed; it is best to install a warm-air blower, and if conditions permit, an air conditioner can also be installed. The indoor air is required to be fresh, with more than 10 hours of light per day. Flies are mostly reared in cages. Cage rearing not only occupies less floor space, but most importantly it does not pollute the environment. We can set up rearing racks inside the breeder fly house. The rearing racks are made of wood and can be divided into upper and lower tiers. On each tier of the rearing rack, place a fly cage made of nylon gauze net, fixing the fly cage to the rack the way you would hang a mosquito net. The cage is 100 cm long, 40 cm wide and 80 cm high. The breeder flies are kept and reared inside the cage; at the same time, leave a working opening with a diameter of 30 cm in the middle-lower part of the fly cage. The working opening should be made into a tubular sleeve of white cloth to facilitate feeding, watering and placing or removing the egg-laying pads. In addition, a piece of nylon gauze net can be hung in the middle of the cage to increase the resting area for adult flies. The bottom of the cage rests on a small flat board. Besides this, each fly cage should also be equipped with a feed tray (a plastic saucer 15-20 cm in diameter), a water tray (25 cm x 15 cm x 6 cm), an emergence tray (40 cm x 30 cm x 8 cm) and an egg collection tray for holding the egg-laying material (40 cm x 30 cm x 8 cm). Construction of the maggot rearing house The maggot rearing house is mainly used to rear maggots kept for breeding. The room temperature should be 20~28°C, and a humidity of 65%~70% is enough. The other rearing facilities in the room should be determined according to the rearing method used, for example, setting up multi-tier rearing racks, maggot rearing basins and heating equipment. Generally these facilities are placed on both sides, with a walkway left in the middle, which both makes full use of the space and makes operation and management convenient. Construction of the maggot rearing shed The maggot rearing shed is specially used to cultivate maggots as protein feed. A simple shed can be put up, as long as it is windproof and waterproof. The maggot rearing pool can be designed as this kind of long strip pool or a small rectangular pool. If it is a long strip pool, the length is unlimited, and a width of about 1.2 m is enough; the two long sides are provided with a certain slope at an angle of 45 degrees, and at the same time the two long sides should also have grooves of 11-20 cm, with a groove height of about 8-10 cm. This is for conveniently collecting the maggots later. If it is a small rectangular pool, an area of usually 3-4 sq m is enough. All four sides are provided with slopes and grooves. The requirements for setting the slopes and grooves can follow those for the long strip pool. The only difference is that a maggot collection bucket can be buried at the corner of this pool, and the edge of the bucket should be slightly higher than the bottom of the pool, which is also for conveniently collecting maggots.