eradicating maggots from aging food stuff

[Jay Blair]

Yesterday I found a 15 gallon container of predigested food stuff in my worm room crawling with maggots . I am trying this experiment to eradicate them before feeding the contents to the bins.

I dosed the container with a half gallon of bleach to kill the maggots. This of course over chlorinated the feed and sterilized it of all benificial organisms also.

For the next 5 days or so I will saturate the food stuff with ultraviolet light and aerated the contents to break down the chlorine.

When my waste water test kit indicates the chlorine levels are diminished enough I plan to reinnoculate the feed mix with some aged feed from a container not infested with maggots.

I will then feed this 15 gallons to one bin and monitor biomass increases or decreases of the worms.

Let y'all know how it turns out.

[neuwirth]

Jay, I know 15 gallons is pretty big, but do you think freezing the contents would have killed the maggots, and allowed you to use the feed sooner, since you wouldn't have to dechlorinate it?

[Jay Blair]

I considered freezing, however I wnted to also kill all remaining eggs laid in the foodstuff.

A quick update on this. The UV light did not sufficiently neutralize the chlorine even after 10 days exposure..
I may have to feed it through the digestor unit again with some active slops.