How to keep black soldier fly larvae alive through the winter

After losing all our black soldier fly larvae last year in the freezing cold, we experimented a little and found out how to keep our black soldier fly larvae alive through our cold Missouri winters. Today we checked the bin and found some adult soldier flies as well and larvae that were alive and well. Our little experiment was a success.

With our black soldier fly bin inside of our greenhouse, we were able to keep them alive through our freezing cold winter months by adding an electric seedling heating mat. It was placed inside the bedding material of the bin and kept on the lowest setting, around 70 degrees. See for yourself in the video how our BSF did over the winter.

We will be building this bin back up this spring and use it to help supplement our feed cost for the chickens. Please be sure to leave a comment if you would like to see more of this content in the future.