Mass production techniques for silk worms, honeybees, predators and parasitoids have been standardized. Is there also a standard technique for mass production of scavangers?
I may be able to give you some advise from experience... Which scavengers are you talking about?
Rearing of blowfly larvae is fairly standardized i believe. Did you have any other scavengers in mind?
I've only reared blowflies. They will be happy with any decaying meat. I usually use beef liver. The fish bait industry produce enormous amounts of blowfly larvae and they will throw in whole cow carcasses into a concrete basin full of larvae. But I believe it is a difference if you want adults or larvae? If you want the adults you need cages so you can collect them once they hatch. If you are only after the larvae any container will do. What do yo mean by mass rearing? Are six species of blowflies enough or do you need coleoptera as well?
Hi Harish!
In our lab we reared 3 species of blowfly using beef liver like Anders. We have also two population of Dermetidae and for them we used dry stopped steak.
Hello Harish,
I can suggest a Insect Growth Chamber (http://www.caronproducts.com/55/prodcat/Insect), but I think it is quite expensive. For Dermestidae you can use also fur and dry bones, as Julien said, however I was able to rear for a while some Histeridae using rotten chicken (but it was quite difficult).
Good luck,
A lot of natural history museums have the cultures of Dermestidae, because they are used to clean skeletal specimens. Maybe they will help You. There are techniques to mass produce larvae of Hermetia illucens, and of course, larvae of some larger Calliphoridae, being used as fish bait are produced in large quantities.
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