Maggots in my LABS

So I did my rice wash, that came out stinky, but looked about right compared to hyroot's video.

I moved to the next step of adding my milk.. hyroot suggested 1 to 10 rice was to milk, elsewhere around the internet I've seen as high as 1 to 20, so I went kind of in the middle to 1 to 15.

I go out to look at my bucket and I see maggots crawling around in my blow off tube and in the bucket as well. I'm GUESSING my lid wasnt tight fitting enough, and allowed some flies in.

They havent been crawling around for long, because they werent crawling in the blow off tube 2 days ago when I checked, but who knows how long prior flies had gotten in.

Now... my logical brain is telling me that, for the application being used, I can probably just strain them out and call it a day. I'm sure theres fecal matter from the flies, and whatever else in the mix now, but if my mix is lacto dominated, I'd think they'd easily outcompete a bit of contamination, no?

But I'm kind of skeeved out, and was hoping someone else has had this happen, to give a bit of guidance on what theyve done.

I'll post some pics in a bit of the bucket system and maggots, just so everyone else can get the heebie jeebies too

Edit:

eww.

Well, I guess nobody has had this happen, or cares to comment, but I'll follow through to the end and update it with my experiences in case anyone else has this happen to them and is trying to figure out what they should do

Strained the mix several times, through 2 seives with a couple layers of panty house in between.

Mix looks as clean as the human eye can tell. I've got it chilling out in the fridge for a bit, just to let everything settle, so I can check the bottom to be sure i dont have any "floaters" wiggling around.

From there, I'll activate it (1 part molasses 1 part LABS, 20 parts water), and give it a few weeks to ferment.

I'm going to forego the lid with the blow off tube, and use a brand new tight fitting lid, that I'll manually burp every day or 2, so I can be sure the mix is sealed tightly during its activation phase.

Not sure what kind of porridge you are making but maggots stink to high hell when I used to get them in the outdoor bins, that gag kind of stench...

I'm completely ignorant to this...is it an organic fert....WTF are you brewing, growmie!

Yup, screw that! Compost tea is about as “stinky” as I’m willing to deal with. I can deal with animal shit, but rotting milk and maggots? Nope! My wife works on a dairy farm and the smell that wafts off her clothes when she gets home some days is the worst. Sour milk mixed with cow shit

Skewbong said:

I'm completely ignorant to this...is it an organic fert....WTF are you brewing, growmie!

Click to expand...

Lol, LABS (lactobacillus serum) is what I'm growing. Essentially homemade EM1, following hyroot's method.

Here's his video tutorial:
(Not sure how to embed from mobile ^^)

The long and short:
Take rice, wash it thoroughly, save the rice water. Let rice water ferment for a week with a semi-permeable lid so natural yeasts and such can get in and go to work.

After one week of rice wash fermentation (smells like sour ass), you mix that at 1 part rice wash 10-20 parts milk, and let ferment another week.

After the milk has fermented (now smells like the surest cheese ever), the curds and other "contaminates" separate from the whey, which is now a concentrated serum of lactobacillus and yeasts. Just gotta remove the curds (and bugs in my case)

All that needs to be done from there, is "activating" the LABS with molasses, and then it can be used just the same as EM1 (microbial innoculant for soil/foliar).


Here's the link to hyroot's thread here on RIU too.. in the first few pages he talks about different ferments and how to use them: https://www.rollitup.org/t/organic-no-till-probiotic-knf-jadam-vermicomposting-soil-mixes-sips-etc-q-a.951076/

BluntMoniker said:

Lol, LABS (lactobacillus serum) is what I'm growing. Essentially homemade EM1, following hyroot's method.

Here's his video tutorial:

(Not sure how to embed from mobile ^^)

The long and short:
Take rice, wash it thoroughly, save the rice water. Let rice water ferment for a week with a semi-permeable lid so natural yeasts and such can get in and go to work.

After one week of rice wash fermentation (smells like sour ass), you mix that at 1 part rice wash 10-20 parts milk, and let ferment another week.

After the milk has fermented (now smells like the surest cheese ever), the curds and other "contaminates" separate from the whey, which is now a concentrated serum of lactobacillus and yeasts. Just gotta remove the curds (and bugs in my case)

All that needs to be done from there, is "activating" the LABS with molasses, and then it can be used just the same as EM1 (microbial innoculant for soil/foliar).


Here's the link to hyroot's thread here on RIU too.. in the first few pages he talks about different ferments and how to use them: https://www.rollitup.org/t/organic-no-till-probiotic-knf-jadam-vermicomposting-soil-mixes-sips-etc-q-a.951076/

Click to expand...

Sounds like it could be awesome, but Im not that hardcore, lol. Good on you for giving it a go though, and good luck. I'll stick to my vermicompost tea, not so stinky at all. As an added bonus, Red wigglers don't grow wings, lol.

I grow organic. but i havent tried making home made EM1, good work.
let us know how your plants like there new serum.

BluntMoniker said:

Well, I guess nobody has had this happen, or cares to comment, but I'll follow through to the end and update it with my experiences in case anyone else has this happen to them and is trying to figure out what they should do

Strained the mix several times, through 2 seives with a couple layers of panty house in between.

Mix looks as clean as the human eye can tell. I've got it chilling out in the fridge for a bit, just to let everything settle, so I can check the bottom to be sure i dont have any "floaters" wiggling around.

From there, I'll activate it (1 part molasses 1 part LABS, 20 parts water), and give it a few weeks to ferment.

I'm going to forego the lid with the blow off tube, and use a brand new tight fitting lid, that I'll manually burp every day or 2, so I can be sure the mix is sealed tightly during its activation phase.

Click to expand...

It's fine, it is not ruined...

hydrogen peroxide or just toss it all out..

BluntMoniker said:

After one week of rice wash fermentation (smells like sour ass), you mix that at 1 part rice wash 10-20 parts milk, and let ferment another week.

After the milk has fermented (now smells like the surest cheese ever), the curds and other "contaminates" separate from the whey, which is now a concentrated serum of lactobacillus and yeasts. Just gotta remove the curds (and bugs in my case)

All that needs to be done from there, is "activating" the LABS with molasses, and then it can be used just the same as EM1 (microbial innoculant for soil/foliar).

Click to expand...

I have been using EM1 for a while but I recently switched to making LABS out of milk, and it is a lot more smelly. It was actually my wife that made it and put it in a corner of the kitchen and I was doing the dishes, taking the trash out, changing the litter box, and I couldn't find the stink. Anyways, I'm making that shit in my garage now. I'm keeping it out of the house. EM1 smelled like a brandy or wine to where LABS smells like someone ate nothing but cheese and took a dump. I'm thinking about switching back to EM1 just so I don't have to deal with the stink, but I'll see how it goes after I expand it. I'm currently expanding 10 gallons of LABS right now... What happened with me is that I used some LABS that wasn't expanded in my Earthboxes and it got funky. I added a generous topdressing of barley + Grokashi and it just smelled extra ripe. Barley has kind of a beer-puke smell already and then throw some ass-cheese in there and you are starting to picture my grow room. Thankfully, it's in garage that's not attached. Jokes aside, you should really follow @hyroot 's method because he knows his shit and I am also someone that he has helped guide. I appreciate all that he has done for this forum, but it's hard to catch guys like that on here anymore. They just keep disappearing like @DonTesla