Symbi Biological
Overwintering Pupae Emerge
A couple of days ago, some of the overwintering pupae emerged from the depths of the soil flat where they’ve been hiding. A couple of them have emerged as adults and are flying around the greenhouse. One landed on my hand and it was very skinny. I know, that sounds sort of ridiculous, but I imagine overwintering uses up a lot of reserves. The weather has really warmed up this week which is why they’ve emerged. Next trial, I need to upgrade the heating system if I want to do this year round.
Crickets: Too hot, too cold
I’d like to make the crickets a little happier and move them to more even environment. The greenhouse gets pretty warm in the day when the sunlight is shining. This means the cricket habitat can get to 100F+. Conversely, the evening temps go much lower (55F), since the heatloss is so fast. There’s a perfect spot for the cricket habitat (and maybe more!) in the space just above the Symbi Lab. What’s great about this spot is we can insulate it and keep a constant 86 degrees and 30% humidity for good breeding conditions. It also will lend a hand in warming up the lab. It’s chilly in there! At Symbi, we try to connect things. Warm lab partners and crickets seem like a great fit. Another convenience is that the crickets will be closer to the aquaponics greenhouse. I can feed them discarded lettuce leaves staying within the Symbi loop.
IPM Redbacked Jumping Spider
Joining part of my Integrated Pest Management Team is the Redbacked Jumping Spider. These little guys sure can jump as you can see on the short video. They seem to be helping with the aphids. Every February as the weather warms up in our area, the aphids wake up and get to work on the lettuces. I’ve seen an increase in the spiders and the aphids are still around, but it doesn’t seem like we have as many. Go Spiders!
Nutrient Analysis with a Photometer
I’ve been getting my water periodically tested to know how I’m doing nutrient-wise for the plants. The system is working really well, but I wish I knew more about what the nutrient levels are so I can make adjustments where needed. In a hydroponic setting, you can easily reset the nutrients by simply mixing up a new batch of fertilizer. Aquaponic systems are different in that they are organic living systems. I’ve used the standard test strips and the drops to test my water, but I really want to know some of the other elements like Calcium, Magnesium, and Potassium for instance.
Crickets!
Crickets have been added to the Fish Food Project. Our friends from Bitwater Farms set us up with a sweet little cricket habitat. This is really exciting to have another protein source to use as we develop our own fish food for our aquaponics system. You know, I think the chickens are going to think they’re pretty tasty, too.
Pupa Walk
Here’s a pupa “walking” under a 15x lens. They’re kinda cute, huh?
Surprise! More Pupae!
What a pleasant surprise to be greeted by some over wintering larvae! These hardy souls have been kicking it in this flat of compost and soil waiting for their time to emerge. I put the flat there next to the Biopod thinking it might be a good place for them to crawl out and land. Since the greenhouse doesn’t have any soil, just some empty benches, I put some potted plants and this flat inside to give them somewhere to go.
Well, they went there! And they’re still in there! The warmer temps have given them reason to rise and I’m looking forward to having some adults around. While I’m hopeful the very young larvae that are in the Biopod are BSFL, it appears we’ll have another crack at trying to induce sexy time and get some more babies.
Larval Dance
Here’s another shot of the new larvae. They have a certain grace to them. I sure hope they’re the good guys, but it’s hard to tell. I could be raising stable flies for all I know right now! As mentioned in previous posts, they still smell like soldier flies. They’re so small I used a 15x lens for this video. EDIT: Dang things are fungus gnat larvae. Leaving this post up because I think the video is neat.
BSFL Babies or Imposters?
We have some young larvae squirming about in the Biopod. Not really sure if they are another kind of fly or BSFL. They’re pretty small. At first, I just thought they were fungus gnat larvae, but I don’t see the typical black head that makes them fairly easy to identify. The bin also smells like the familiar Black Soldier Fly Larvae smell so maybe these guys are the real deal. We’ll have to wait until they grow up a little more to find out.
Arcticponics
The system is at 53 degrees F. Things grow sloooowly in these temps. What’s interesting is that the water loss from the system is minimal. Read More
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