Everything you need to know about our Mighty Black Soldier Flies
Updated: Jun 16, 2022
Our mighty Black Soldier Fly (BSF), also known as Hermetia Illucens Linnaeus can be found everywhere in the world and is also a species of fly native to Singapore. These flies enjoy warmer temperatures and are mainly found in temperate regions and the tropics. Because of their adaptive nature, they are resilient and are able to tolerate a wide range of extremes in temperature.
Hungry Buggers, Big Eaters
In their larval form, they are very hungry eaters of a pretty wide variety of organic wastes, including fruit peels, vegetable scraps, and tofu wastes, also known as Okara which they decompose.
The larval stage is where most of the magic happens and why the BSF are gaining the recognition they have always deserved. The Black Soldier Fly larvae (also known as BSFL) is not only a popular alternative source of protein used for pet food, aquaculture, livestock feed, and human nutrition, they may even solve our world’s food waste problem. The truth is, they can address all those things – and so much more.
At Insect Feed Technologies, we value the BSF by creating key solutions for everyday needs including the Black Soldier Fly Organic Fertiliser (Frass) for healthy plants and crops, as well as Black Soldier Fly Dried Larvae for animal feed.
When the BSF transforms into an adult fly they stop eating. This is due to the insect not having any digestive organs, stingers, or mount parts. At this stage, its lifespan is short and its key objective is to reproduce. Furthermore, because of its lack of mouthparts, they are not able to sting and bite and cannot be associated with disease transmission unlike its counterparts like the mosquito.
The Black Soldier Fly’s Life Cycle
The average lifespan of the Black Soldier Fly is about 45 days total and spends most of their lives in 2 main stages, the larva stage at 18 days and the adult stage at 8 days.