- Author: Lauren Fordyce
Indoor food waste bins (also known as kitchen bins or compost bins) have become a popular addition to Californian homes. They are a great way to collect food scraps and divert food waste from landfills, but they can sometimes attract pest insects like maggots, ants, and fruit flies. Below are some tips for keeping a pest-free food waste bin:
- Empty and clean indoor food waste bins frequently. Dump the food waste into your outdoor compost pile, drop it off at a composting facility, or place it into your municipal green waste bin. Emptying your indoor bin frequently (even if it's not full) can make it less attractive to pests and prevent flies from developing inside. Once empty, rinse the bin and clean it with soap and water before putting it back on the counter. Be sure to check the bin for any fly maggots or pupae stuck to the sides; scrape them off if found.
- Keep your bin or food scraps in the freezer. Putting your food waste in the freezer prevents it from breaking down and smelling. It can also kill any pest insects and prevents them from infesting your food waste bin.
- Place food scraps in a paper bag, wrap in newspaper, or use a compostable bag before placing in your organics or green waste bin for collection. Don't use a regular plastic bag since these are not biodegradable. This can keep the inside of your bins cleaner, but also reduce moisture which maggots need to survive. Excess moisture can also make your bin smell.
- Choose a bin with a tight-fitting lid. Prevent pests from being able to get into the bin by choosing a food waste bin with a secure lid. If your bin has ventilation holes at the top, choose an appropriately sized charcoal filter to cover the openings. Inspect the filter frequently for any fly maggots or pupae.
For more information about controlling indoor pests, visit the UC IPM household pests page.
Check with your local composting program for more tips on maintaining a food waste bin or visit CalRecycle's Organic Materials Management website at https://calrecycle.ca.gov/Organics/.
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- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Or at least, it's a conversation piece!
Maggot Art is a big draw!
Scores of youngsters and adults--most with great glee but some with a little trepidation--participated in the Department of Entomology and Nematology's annual Maggot Art event, this time switched from the Briggs Hall courtyard to the Green Hall courtyard.
Hudson Carr, 4, of Los Angeles--with Mom Angie Velazquez assisting, and Dad Justin Carr taking photographs-- eagerly picked up a maggot with forceps, dipped it into green water-based, non-toxic paint and watched it crawl around on his white paper. Then he picked up another, dipped it into yellow paint, and guided it on the paper. A few more colors and a few more maggots...and...Voila! Maggot Art!
His mother, a UC Davis alumnus (she majored in psychology and sociology and participated in the California Aggie Marching Band-uh!, now known as the UC Davis Marching Band), says Hudson has always like bugs. His smile confirmed it. Then the family was off to the Bohart Museum of Entomology to see more insects.
Meanwhile, entomology graduate student Elizabeth Slagboon of the Ian Grettenberg lab, and undergraduate student Summer Calvache, an animal biology major, offered assistance and encouragement to the Maggot Art artists.
Maggot Art has been a traditional part of the UC Davis Picnic Day since the early 2000s.
Rebecca O'Flaherty, a former graduate student of forensic entomologist Robert Kimsey, coined the educational teaching curriculum, "Maggot Art," back in 2001 when she was studying at the University of Hawaii. She was rearing blowflies for her forensic research and wanted an activity to draw the interest of elementary school students. She also wanted to generate interest and respect for forensic entomology.
Her Maggot Art quickly drew national interest. The CSI television show featured one of her works, “Ancient Offering,” which hung on the permanent set in Gil Grissom's office. O'Flaherty also exhibited her work at art shows, including a two-month exhibition at the Capital Athletic Club, Sacramento, in 2007.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art or Guggenheim Museum may not be ready to showcase the UC Davis Maggot Art, but the artists--and the maggots--are the stars of social media, family videos and refrigerator art.
- Author: Alison Collin
Two years ago, overwhelmed by carpets of wormy, windfall apples I resorted to tossing them into a large plastic stock tank that had numerous holes in its sides, remnants of its original purpose - a crawdad washing device.
However, after a couple of weeks I needed the container and on tipping it over was astounded (and a bit revolted) to find that the bottom contained layers of hundreds of larvae. They were dark, grayish brown. I had not been aware of pest flies in the area, and there was no odor, but the huge numbers of larvae present gave me cause for concern. Research showed that I had just made my acquaintance with Black Soldier Fly larvae, Hermetia illucens, a species that efficiently breaks down organic material, especially the green (high nitrogen) matter in decomposing plant materials, and are considered to beneficial.
The adult flies are about 3/4” long, and are shiny black, looking more like a wasp than a house fly. However, these are not a pest or nuisance fly since they have no functioning mouth parts and therefore cannot bite, nor do they have a stinging mechanism. They flit about the garden, intent on their sole purpose; finding suitable sites for laying eggs which are deposited in batches of 600-800 at a time. There are far fewer nuisance flies around when Black Soldier Flies are present since the soldier flies devour the larvae of other species, and it has also been noted that significant reductions in levels of E. coli and salmonella are present in chicken manure when it has been processed by Black Soldier Fly larvae.
They like warm, moist conditions (e.g. rotting apples), and when the larvae hatch they feed voraciously on pretty much anything so long as those conditions are met; kitchen waste (they love coffee grounds), animal manure and carcasses, deserted bees' nests, and even dead fish as seen in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhR2jDS2IJI . The larvae are a pale beige with darker rings around the body segments, but as they mature they become a dark grayish brown. They can eat twice their body weight daily and soon convert kitchen vegetable waste into little fat bodies containing up to 43% protein and 35% fat. This makes them ideal food for chickens, and many chicken keepers farm them for this purpose. The larvae are also dried and used as food for exotic pets and fish. As they prepare to pupate, they tend to move upwards in order to leave their wet environment, searching for drier debris or soil until they mature as flies. This trait is put to good use since the mature larvae can easily be collected as they migrate out of their initial food source.
They do have a downside in some situations. Unfortunately, although Black Soldier Fly larvae and red worms both like the same food, the fly larvae are extremely active, like warm, moist conditions, and tend to make the soil acidic which is not good for worms, so if you have worm bins it is prudent to check them from time to time and remove any Black Soldier Fly larvae that may be present.
The frass that black soldier flies produce makes a clean, odor-free compost, but in my experience the food conversion into the body of the insect is so efficient, there is not a great volume of compost remaining! Dried larvae may also be pulverized and used as fertilizer.
For further reading on this subject:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetia_illucens
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's no fun having a "hole in one."
A hole in your butterfly habitat.
So, here it is September of 2016 and we're at home rearing monarch butterflies as part of our small-scale conservation project to help the declining population.
The project involves growing several species of milkweed in our pollinator garden, and when we see caterpillars, we "bring them in." We fill a broad-based, narrow-necked Patron tequila bottle with water, add milkweed and 'cats, and tuck the bottle inside a zippered, pop-up mesh habitat (some call it a cage) to protect them from predators (like birds) and parasitoids (like tachinid flies). The butterfly habitat occupies a corner of our kitchen counter.
So, one day in September, I think: "Why keep the monarch habitat on our kitchen counter when it's so nice and shady and breezy by the crape myrtle tree in our backyard?"
So, I place the habitat on a wooden bench next to the crape myrtle. Ah. Mother Nature at its finest. Several caterpillars are in the "J" position (their position before they pupate) and several are chrysalids.
All's right with the world, right? Wrong.
The unexpected happens. The caterpillars begin shriveling. The chrysalids turn gooey brown. And right before my eyes--I happened to be in the yard at the time--I see tachinid fly maggots "bungee jumping" from their hosts. The maggots are sliding down their white mucus strings. Gleefully sliding, I think.
What?
Tachinid flies, you see, lay their eggs inside a living host, such as a monarch caterpillar or chrysalis. They eat the host from the inside out, kill the host, and maggots emerge. They're white at first but darken and harden to the color of coffee beans as pupae. The adult flies emerge, all ready to mate and start the life cycle all over again.
But how did they get into the thinly meshed habitat? How?
It is then that I notice a single, tiny, ragged hole in the netting. And oh, look! Another tachinid fly is trying to slip in.
I photograph Exhibit A, B, C and D; clean the cage with bleach and water; and vow that the butterfly habitat is best inside, not outside.
A hole in one is no fun.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ready for those June weddings?
Coming to an altar near you...a bride and a groom. "When you marry in June, you're a bride all your life."--Anonymous.
"Look happy," say the wedding photographers as they focus on the bridal couple, and then single out the bride who will be a bride all of her life.
But if you engage in insect wedding photography, you'll find that June is a good month for insects, too.
Take those tachinid flies. Have you ever focused on them?
Monarch moms and dads--those who rear and release monarch butterflies--hate tachinid "weddings." They hate the bride, the groom, their families, and all future offspring. It's a hate-hate relationship.
That's because some members of the Tachinidae family are parasitoids, that is, the flies lay their eggs inside a living host (larva). The fly larvae eat the tissue from the inside out, killing the host.
That's good if you're trying to control cabbage white flies, cabbage loopers, alfalfa loopers, fall armyworms, variegated cutworms, codling moths, oriental fruit moths, peach twig borers, obliquebanded leafrollers, omnivorous leafrollers, oriental fruit moths, peach twig borers, pink bollworms and other pests. It's a "natural enemy" thing. See UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program.
That's bad if you're trying to rear monarch butterflies. You're appalled when your caterpillar shrivels and dies, and several fly maggots emerge. Or when your brown-stained chrysalis turns to goo, and out pop several maggots.
But back to insect wedding photography. We've never managed to catch tachinid flies feeling a little...uh...well...amorous. This amorous feeling is not mutual; to be honest, I still haven't forgiven them for what they did to our small-scale, rear-and-release monarch project last year.
Still, as a insect photographer, I consider myself a guest in their habitat.
So, yes, I walked away. I did. No insects were harmed in the making of these photographs.
ENT 1 Student Showcase Flyer 2017