Waste managemet

Using larvae as organic waste management sounds surprising but its not new advancement in technology nowadays. Many countries have been commercially used environment friendly black soldier fly for waste management.There are over 2700 species of soldier fly in which Hermetia illucens, commonly known as black soldier fly is must studied one. They are voracious eater and mimic wasps in appearance. Like all insects they have 4 stage of life cycle; egg, larvae (instar with hatching and pre-pupae phase),pupa and adult. On average a female fly lays more than 500 eggs(general 100-500 eggs) or adjacent to rotting organic matter (compost/manure). In just 4-5 days eggs hatch and in two weeks they will develop into 5/8 inch mature larvae(proper maggots). In another 2 weeks(for spring and summer) they emerge out as adults. Pupal stage is temperature dependent, may exceed 2 weeks in winter. Adults survives only for next 5-10 days and dies soon after breeding. Adults do not have mouth parts. It cannot bite so is neither a pest or vector for any disease. They also don’t get attracted towards human houses. They bury themselves deep in case they got released to soil. Interesting part is use of larvae in two ways; one is waste management and other one as healthier  and sustainable animal feed. According to the current nutritional analysis, larvae constitute about 40-65% protein, 30% fat and rest carbohydrate and calcium. One of the unique feature of this larvae is they are self cleaning and self harvesting. They leave rotting waste after achieving grey color(mature larva) cleaning themselves removing all traces of rot as well as they can chew through any harmful bacteria(E.coli/Salmonella) making them clean source for animal feed free of disease any contaminants like bacteria, virus or fungus. They are now used as soybean substitute in animal feeds specially in poultry and fisheries.

RARA BioTech is putting an effort to solve problem of waste management in Nepal using Black soldier fly and also providing disease free organic feed stock used in poultry, fisheries as well as swine farms.

Team members:

Sumeena Karki (Project leader)

Bimala Dhakal and Nagendra Awasthi (Winner NepSAS 2018 with the idea of using BSFL for waste management)

 Aayushi Sharma, Sanjog Raj Silwal and Abhibind Khoniya (Thesis students)