Influence of Organic Substrates on Performance of Black Solder FlyLarvae (Hermetia Illucens) BSFL)

Abstract

The bioconversion process of food waste using Black Soldier Fly (BSF) has been considered an effective way in degrading and adding value to organic waste. This process produces larvae as feed resource and solid residue as compost (frass). A total of 10 000 individual larvae at 3days old were used to conduct the trial, and were randomly allocated to four treatments diets. The plastic trays were used, each tray contains 500 larvae of average weight of 100mg and were fed with 600g of substrates from different sources, each treatment replicated five times. The study was conducted to determine the effects of Black solder fly larvae reared on market waste, restaurant waste, pig dropping and poultry dropping on larval survival rate, final weight, waste reduction percentage, waste reduction index (WRI), efficiency of converting digestible feed (ECD), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and (frass) production. The 3 day old larvae were fed for 12 days and the results indicated that larvae reared in market waste has highest larval weight 296±41mg per larvae, waste reduction percentage 48.55±1.3%, Waste reduction index 10.2±0.68%, and ECD, 63.2±6%, (P<0.05). Highest frass production was observed, to larvae reared in restaurant waste 332gDM frass and FCR 44.5 was significantly high (P<0.05) than other treatments. The survival rate was not (P>0,05) significantly influenced by treatments. These results provide valuable insights for utilizing organic waste in BSFL rearing, contributing to the development of more sustainable waste management, animal feed and organic fertiliser production methods.