Evaluation of different food waste for sustainable mass rearing of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L) in Bangladesh

Black solider fly (BSF) (Hermetia illucens L) is one of the potential organic protein sources which is utilised as feed for fish and poultry industries. Effective mass rearing of BSF is inevitable for future sustainable feed industries in Bangladesh. Therefore, this research was aimed at developing the sustainable mass rearing techniques for this insect’s larvae on different available food waste materials in the Bangladesh context. The study was conducted using different household waste, i.e. Rice-Fruit-Meat; Rice-Fruit-Fish; Rice-Vegetable-Meat; Rice-Vegetable-Fish; Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Meat; and Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Fish. Larvae reared on Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Fish diet showed the best results among the treatments in terms of larval growth, i.e. length 23.3±0.1 mm and width 6.2±0.1 mm. The Rice-Fruit-Fish diet showed the minimum larval length (19.5±0.1 mm) and Rice-Fruit-Meat diet showed the minimum larval width (5.6±0.1 mm) compared to the other diets. Among these diets, Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Fish diet gave the highest larval fresh weight (2.6±0.1 mg) compared to other treatments. In addition, the Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Fish diet took less time (45.6±0.7 days) to complete its total life span, while the Rice-Fruit-Fish diet took more time (51.3±1.3 days). The absence of Fruit-Vegetable combination in diets could greatly affect the larval growth and development. It can be concluded that the diet combination of Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Fish can be utilised for better mass production of BSF for sustainable feed production in Bangladesh.