Is maggot farming difficult? Analysis of the most common problems

1. Taming breeder flies is somewhat difficult, and it also takes a fairly long time.
The solution is: introduce stock directly.?

2. Breeder flies do not lay eggs.
Breeder flies keep staying in the brighter areas and are unwilling to come down to eat, and they either do not lay eggs or lay very few. The reasons for this are: first, mainly environmental factors, such as temperature being too low, light being too dim, unpleasant odors in the breeding room that the flies dislike, the food tray and sponge not being cleaned and giving off odors, the food fed to the flies spoiling, the manure material not being fresh or being over-fermented, the egg-collecting material not being fresh, the breeder smoking in the maggot room, the breeder moving about clumsily in the breeding room and chasing the flies away, too many male flies and very few female flies, and so on. The solutions are: the temperature in the breeding room should be above 22°C and below 38°C, the light must not be too dim, other odors such as paint must be eliminated, the food tray and sponge should be cleaned once every 2 days, the sponge should be replaced with a new one every 20 days, fresh food must be used every day to feed the breeder flies, the manure material for raising maggots should preferably be fresh (within 3 days), the egg-collecting material should be mixed just before use, EM or substances the flies dislike must not be added to the egg-collecting material, smoking is strictly prohibited in the breeding room, breeders or visitors entering the breeding room should walk gently, frightening or chasing the flies is strictly prohibited so that the flies know we are not their enemies, and good manure material should be used to raise the maggots kept for breeding, so as to ensure there are enough female breeder flies. Once the above problems are solved, getting the flies to lay many eggs is very easy.

   3. The maggots crawl out before they have grown up.
   Under normal breeding conditions, maggots crawl out of the manure pile only after they have grown and matured, but during breeding, some crawl out before growing up, with a large mass of small maggots crawling back and forth on top of the manure pile, unwilling to burrow into the manure pile to eat. The main reasons are, first, the temperature in the manure material is too low; when the manure material temperature is below 27°C, it is very hard for the maggots to absorb the nutrients in the manure material; if the manure material is not fresh or is over-fermented and no longer ferments after entering the maggot room, the temperature in the manure material is too low, and the maggots cannot absorb the nutrients in the manure material while in the pile, so the maggots have no choice but to collectively burrow out of the pile to look for food. The solutions are: raise the temperature in the breeding room, and the temperature of the manure material will rise accordingly, so the nutrients can be absorbed by the maggots; put fresh manure material on top of the maggots that are crawling around everywhere, and the maggots will immediately burrow into the new manure material to feed; second, there are too many maggots and not enough manure material, and all the nutrients in the manure material have already been eaten by the maggots, so with no food left, the maggots have no choice but to come out and look for other food. The solution is simply to add new manure material. The above situations occur most often in spring and autumn.

   4. The maggots do not separate automatically, or do not separate cleanly.
   The principle of automatic separation is to make use of the physiological characteristics of maggots; after growing and maturing, maggots are about to pupate, but they all dislike pupating in the manure pile where they grew, so they crawl out of the manure pile, but they are blocked by the wall of the maggot-rearing tank, so they have no choice but to walk along the wall toward both sides, and when they are near the maggot-collecting bucket, they encounter a tiny slope, and instead they scramble even more to climb up; just as they climb to the edge of the maggot-collecting bucket, a sudden downward slope (maggots have no eyes) catches them off guard and they fall into the maggot-collecting bucket and can never climb out again. Sometimes, especially in winter and spring, the maggots are always found not to have separated cleanly, and many maggots have pupated in the manure. The reasons are, first, the temperature in the breeding room is too low, below 20°C, while the temperature in the manure pile is above 30°C; as soon as the maggots crawl out they feel that the outside temperature will be unfavorable for pupation, so they have no choice but to pupate in the manure pile; second, the manure pile being raised is too large, and the maggots at the sides separate automatically, while the maggots living in the middle of the pile crawl for a long time and still have not crawled out of the manure, and since they have no eyes they think the manure pile is boundless and that crawling further is futile, so they have no choice but to pupate in the manure pile; third, the frequent activity of the maggots breaks up the manure and always ends up filling even the edge of the maggot-rearing tank with manure, so the maggots do not even have a “path” to crawl out on. The solutions are: the time for automatic separation of maggots is from 3 to 9 o'clock, and the temperature during this period should be above 20°C; the manure in each maggot-rearing tank should weigh less than 100 kg; and 2 to 3 times a day, the manure material blocking the edge of the maggot-rearing tank should be shoveled to the middle, so that the path along the wall of the maggot-rearing tank is unobstructed.