This Small Flying Insect May Be The Solution To Food Waste and Animal Manure

Black Soldier Flies (Hermetica Illucens). You may think that these are some of those annoying flies that you find in your house every so often. This, however, is only correct to an extent. Although the reputation of flies leaves much to be desired, many still believe black soldier flies are one of the most wonderful things on Earth. It is an indispensable part of the biosphere.

The life cycle of a black soldier fly is 30 to 35 days. It goes through four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult stage. The egg stage is about 4 days long. The larva stage is about 14 days long and during this period, the larva eats for 24 hours a day without stopping, mainly feeding on food waste and animal manure. It is reported that 500 kilograms of black soldier fly larvae can process 2.5 to 3 tons of garbage per day. During the prepupal stage, black soldier fly larvae stop eating and begin to wait for their wings to grow out to become an adult black soldier fly. An adult can normally lay 700 to 1000 eggs and it will die 2 to 3 days after eggs are laid. Although black soldier flies look very similar to the common houseflies, they do not carry viruses, do not bite people or animals, do not fly around as much, and do not enter human living environments.

Using black soldier flies to deal with food waste and animal manure has many advantages:

1. They can convert food waste to organic fertilizer within 20 days. 
2. Larvae and pupae are rich in essential amino acids and minerals, and are good sources of feed for poultry, livestock and fish breeding. In October 2013, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations adopted black soldier flies as the main protein feed to replace insects in the “Edible Insects Report”.
3. Breeding black soldier flies has the advantages of small scale investment, short cycle, and fast capital turnover. 
4. Black soldier fly manure is a very good organic fertilizer. It can repel insects and potentially replace pesticides, which will improve food safety.
5. Black soldier flies can be used to dispose of large amounts of animal manure, meat, dairy products, animal feces, and leftover foods. These items often take months to dispose of with the composting process or cannot be composted.

Some universities in Taiwan and Singapore have begun to use black soldier flies to dispose of food waste throughout their entire university campus. There is also a company in China that can process 20 tons of chicken manure in a day with black soldier flies. More and more Asian countries have begun to use black soldier flies to dispose of animal manure and food waste. However, this is still extremely uncommon in the United States, Australia, and other developed countries. Do you think using black soldier flies has any obvious shortcomings that make many developed countries not want to use them?