Food waste type and moisture content influence on the Hermetia illucens (L.), (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) Larval Development and Survival

Abstract

Black Soldier Fly (BSF) or its scientific name Hermetia Illucens is insect native to most tropical and subtropical region. The larvae (BSFL) are capable of eating almost any substrate supplied to it, making it one of the saprophagous insects that is very useful as a recycler. BSFL digests these substrates into a source of nutrients that help their growth. With biomass that is full of absorbed nutrients makes it rich in protein that is suitable as livestock feed. For this purpose, the composition of BSFL is important to be observed as it can affect their quality for further application. Usually, in further applications of BSFL, the weight of biomass is one of the criteria that can provide a good profit return. Therefore, identifying the appropriate type of food waste and the most economical way for the rearing process of BSF is important for this purpose. In this research, the larval growth and survival in the bio-conversion process were tested using two types of food waste with several levels of moisture contents. The two types of food waste were the vegetable trimming (VT) and left over (LO) food waste. The moisture contents for each type of food waste were adjusted to 60, 70 and 80% for three different replicated batch of larvae. The larvae of these different duplicated batch were sampled every day to measure their survival rate as well as changes in wet weight. Results obtained from this study indicate that, larvae supplied with 80% moisture content of food waste (VT and LO) showed the fastest growth rate (wet weight basis) compared to others. The result also suggest that the survival rate of the larvae was not significantly affected by the high content of moisture. It was found that the survival rate of BSFL were more than 95% throughout the experiment. As a conclusion, this study provides valuable insights for the profitable waste management industry employing the BSFL as agent of bioconversion for food waste recycling.