[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]As a food source, though, I think larvae of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) are a better choice for breeding. The grubs are a lot bigger than house fly maggots.

Using the pupae as a protein source for animal feed seems pretty logical. They're already raised as food for birds and reptiles. Using them as a protein source for humans "feels" distasteful, but the ground up meal could be disguised in a lot of ways to make it quite palatable.

I accidentally ended up with a composting bin full of "soldier grubs," which are the larvae of black soldier flies. They're voracious composters and my red wigglers would never be able to keep up with them. They also seem to be a lot hardier than the worms in terms of temperature extremes.

Right now, I'm just using the grubs for composting. While I greatly appreciate their composting fervor, they certainly aren't "cute" and don't engender anything like the same affection my worms did. I used to handle the worms routinely, but can't bring myself to touch the grubs. Silly, I know.

Anyway, I'll probably go back to worms fairly soon -- or get another bin for worm composting and do both (in which case I'll have to solicit more vegetarian food waste from other sources).