This should be an interesting post for most people. Looking out for artificial lighting for the BSF breeding has long been an effort in this industry, as an efficient light source can eliminate the variability caused by sunlight quality due to weather or seasonal changes, and thus secure a stable black soldier fly egg production. There are couple key studies in this field that I have to acknowledge for developing our final product of a high efficiency LED breeding lamp.

Tomberlin, J. K. and D. C. Sheppard (2002). "Factors influencing mating and oviposition of black soldier flies (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) in a colony." Journal of Entomological Science 37(4): 345-352.

--In this study the researchers mentioned they have tested 40-watt Sylvania Gro Lux light and 430-watt Pro Ultralight Light System, but neither of these lights had triggered mating nor unfertilized eggs were deposited, and by accessing direct sunlight successful mating was observed and fertilized eggs were collected. This suggested that sunlight are different than those two artificial lights and black soldier fly adults need direct sunlight for successful mating as well as for formation of fertilized eggs.

Zhang, J., et al. (2010). "An artificial light source influences mating and oviposition of black soldier flies, Hermetia illucens." Journal of Insect Science 10(202).

--The researchers in this studies tested a few dozen light sources and found quartz iodine lamp is working for the black soldier fly, at 60% efficiency compared to sunlight. The study suggested a wavelength range from 450-700nm is responsible for successful mating of black soldier fly adults. However hatching rate was not investigated in this study.

Oonincx, D., et al. (2016). "Photoreceptor spectral sensitivity of the compound eyes of black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) informing the design of LED-based illumination to enhance indoor reproduction." Journal of insect physiology 95: 133-139.

--Unlike the previous studies, this one took another approach to find the effective light. The researchers identified three types of photoreceptor cells in the compound eye of BSF, which can be excited by UV, blue color, and green color lights, respectively. A LED made with this color mixture were proven to be able to trigger black soldier fly mating and producing fertilized eggs, though the study did not give out a fertilization rate, but it did indicate the fertilization rate is higher than using fluorescent lamps, which is barely emitting any light at the UV range.

Nakamura, S., et al. (2016). "Small-scale rearing of the black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomyidae), in the laboratory: low-cost and year-round rearing." Applied Entomology and Zoology 51(1): 161-166.

--In this study a system composite with two 40-watt fluorescent lamps supplemented with a 20-watt LED with spectrum from 400-800nm triggered mating in small cages (20x23x35cm) and fertilized eggs were obtained. When compared with flies bred under sunlight, the eggs produced under the LED system has lower fertilization rate.
​

The study from Zhang et al. (2010) had profound influence in the Chinese BSF breeding industry, as most breeding centers I visited had installed some quartz iodine lamps as light supplement. Though I did not see any breeding center had this lamp used as sole lighting source, as the main lighting source is still sunlight. The lights are only turned on when it's cloudy outside, or during the winter as this light emits huge amount of heat and can also be used as heating source. However this lamp has a big disadvantage and that is the energy consumption--as at least 500-watt is needed and usually people will use the 2000-watt version.

The EVO Consortium has long been looking for more efficient lighting sources, and there are indeed many lamps we found that works and we have observed couple key phenomenons:

1. Many lights work. For example, we have found many fluorescent type lamps from the market work for black soldier fly, with different color temperature, from 5500k to 7000k. Fluorescent lamps with different color temperature doesn't seem matter much for the mating.
2. Some CFL/LED can trigger mating pair formation, though the mated females oviposited unfertilized eggs.
3. Light power is important. For the same model of lights, if the 100-watt doesn't trigger any mating, sometime if you triple the power--the 300-watt version of this light source can stimulate mating.
4. When using sunlight as light source, a consecutive cloudy days not only decreased the amount of eggs produced, but the hatching rate of these eggs decreased too.

​So how to improve the lighting? Based on our researches there are basically two approaches to find better light sources.

First approach is testing hundreds of lights from the market and find the best one for our BSF. The advantage of this approach is that you can usually find a lamp that's very cheap and working, the quartz iodine lamps for example, usually cost under $10 USD per piece. On the other hand, the disadvantage of this approach is also very obvious, using the iodine lamps as example again, around 80% of the energy were used to generated useless lights which resulted in extremely high operating cost.

​The second approach is to find out what lights does black soldier fly need for both mating stimulation and egg fertilization, then assemble the lights accordingly. The challenge of this approach is that we still know very little about how the light impact the black soldier fly physiology process that's responsible for mating success. Right now we only know what the black soldier fly compound eye can see, but potentially there are many more organisms that might be sensitive to the lights too, for example, the ocelli; the pigment cells on the body that make this insect black might be sensitive to the lights too, as we already know about human that even though we cannot see UV with our eyes, the UV helps us to produce substances such as vitamin D that's critical for our health.

Based on all the information obtained, we hypothesize that:

1. Theoretically, all the lights can stimulate black soldier fly breeding if power is not a factor to consider. This means, given enough power, 2000-watt for example, many lights can become effective to the adult black soldier fly and for stimulating mating, but not necessarily egg fertilization; though higher the power it requires, the higher percentage of the energy was used for useless wavelengths, and thus less efficient.
2. The mating pair formation does not mean a successful mating, as the light quality during the pair formation is also important for the fertilization to happen.
3. Lights for black soldier fly adult is not just for them to be able to see each other--it's also a required and ongoing condition to trigger more complex physiology processes that helps egg fertilization.

Above are the experience we wanted to share with you of what we know about the artificial light for breeding black soldier fly. With an overall consideration, we decided to use LED technology to assemble the best light possible as of today. 

Author:
Spring Yang
EVO Conversion Systems
JM Green

After few years of research on this topic and 6 months of product development, we now can proudly bring to you the most energy efficient black soldier fly breeding light product developed by EVO BSF Consortium. It has been tested within the consortium as well as by some non-member associates, and we have confirmed this product is effective to all populations we tested. Now we are more than happy to share this knowledge and product with you.

Learn more about the knowledge base behind this product development HERE

The 1000-Watt quartz iodine lamp (QIL) is the most prevalently used light source in the breeding industry today, and it can be replaced by a 150-Watt of our breeding LED. We can compare the operational cost of using each product considering both the cost of the lamp itself as well as the electricity consumption. 1000-Watt QIL is widely available at USD$10 each piece, and each lamp can last effective up to 6 months. Our 150-Watt LED is costing $390, and can last effective up to 2 years. Considering the electricity cost $0.15 USD per kWh (could be higher in many countries), and running lights 8 hrs per day, both lights will cost pretty much the same after first year. Going into the second year, however, the LED will save 40% over the whole time because only need to invest in the lamp once.

This is just a comparison on the cost side. If considering the LED is safer to operate, and can induce more egg fertilization, the benefits of using our LED could be even more.

However, it should be noted that light source is just one factor contributing to breeding success, and there are many other factors that's more or less important, such as temperature, humidity, and pupa quality, etc.

Products are currently being shipped from China or USA, depending on the stock availability.
Shipping cost is fixed regardless where the product is shipped from.

If order more than 10 pieces please request bulk order pricing and shipping fee HERE

If you were not aware, Insects to Feed the World Conference will be held in Wuhan, China from 15-18 May.  

Here is what is said on the conference website:

It is our greatest pleasure to invite you to attend the 2nd International Conference "Insects to Feed the World" (IFW 2018) on May 15-18, 2018 in Wuhan, China.
IFW 2018 aims to address all aspects related to insects as food and feed and will bring together research scientists, government officials, and private sector representatives from the food and feed sector from both developing and developed countries. The overall objective of the conference is to engage in a global multi-stakeholder dialogue to further explore the potential of edible insects for food and feed security. Participants will discuss key aspects of collection, production, processing, nutrition, marketing, and consumption of edible insects. IFW 2018 will concentrate on the following topics:

• The role of insects in food and feed production systems
• Highlights of using insects in China for food, feed and pharma
• Ethno-entomology
• Farming insects
• Special food production systems
• Special feed production systems
• Nutrition, processing and conservation of edible insects
• Insects as food and feed components and supplements
• Environmental issues in gathering and farming insects
• Food safety, legislation, and policy
• Marketing, and economics
• Consumer attitudes
• Edible insects and ethics
• Future research and conducive policies

 Local organizing committee of IFW 2018 Email: ifw2018@126.com
HISTORY: The 1st International Conference “Insects to Feed the World”, 14-17 May 2014, the Netherlands. this conference brought together for the first time a large assembly of stakeholders from all over the world. The conference marked an important step towards mobilizing the potential of insects as human food and animal feed to contribute to global food security and in particular to exchange information on the feasibility of mass rearing of insects to increase the availability of animal proteins in a more sustainable way. http://www.wur.nl/en/show/Insects-to-feed-the-world.htm.

I hope you all can attend!  And, many thanks to all of the other companies sponsoring the conference. Without your support, the conference would not be as great as I am sure it will be! 

EVO Conversion Systems is excited to welcome Beta Hatch as its newest partner.

Beta Hatch, which is in Seattle, Washington, is the first partner of EVO to be located in North America. And, we look forward to working with them to advance insects as food and feed in North America as well as throughout the world.

As from the Beta Hatch website:  betahatch.com

"Beta Hatch we believe that our food systems have too long neglected the smallest of farmyard creatures: insects! We grow insects for food, feed, and fertilizer.
We farm high-protein insects for chickens and create balanced and natural fertilizer for plants. The immune boosting benefits of our products mean fewer antibiotics in poultry and less pesticide on our fruits and veggies."

"We believe in changing food systems. Our goal is to develop the technology and knowledge that will make insects the next commodity crop.
Our company innovates from the first principles of farming.

• Know your livestock
• Grow sustainably
• Build community

Most people see insects only as ‘bugs’ or ‘pests’. We’re working not only to harness the great potential of insects, but also to reimagine the insect as nature's most efficient bioreactors."

EVO Conversion Systems is very excited to welcome Dr. Eric Benbow and Dr. Jennifer Pechal from Michigan State University to the EVO Consortium.  We are fortunate to bring additional ecology and microbiology experience to our group. Check out their websites to learn more about them.

Eric Benbow: ericbenbow.wixsite.com/website
Jennifer Pechal: jenpechal.wixsite.com/jenpechal

Temperature is a major issue with rearing BSF in colony. Adults are highly susceptible to temperatures below 21C (will survive but not mate when temperatures are lower), while larvae show an ability to mass produce heat and avoid these issues; however, this ability becomes a problem during the warm months of the year when their heat production can cause temperatures above 40C.  

In such cases, larvae die or attempt to escape from their containers- both scenarios are not good for anyone wanting to mass produce the BSF.

I am reviewing the paper listed below as a "shout out" to my friends and colleagues in the southern hemisphere that are quickly preparing for winter and associated low temperatures and resulting consequences (e.g., death of BSF and low egg production). As a side note, I have to admit, weather in Texas is quite nice right now (21C and holding with blue skies).  

Spranghers, T., A. Noyez, K. Schildermans, and P. De Clercq. 2017. Cold hardiness of the black soldier fly (Diptera: Stratiomyidae). Journal of Economic Entomology 110: 1501-1507.

This study was conducted by colleagues in Belgium, and it should be noted they initiated their BSF colony, which was used in their research, from material received out of south Georgia, USA (assuming original BSF population used in early research and has served as seed material for a number of colonies around the world).

• Major finding was the ability of BSF to survive 5C was primarily governed by stage of development. 
• Prepupae could survive (50% survival) at 5C for approximately 23 days.
• They hypothesize 50% individuals in the field could survive up to 47 days at that temperature.
• As they point out, this study is population and diet specific. Yes, what they reared the larvae on could impact their ability to survive cold temperatures.

My take away from this study is:

• These results are very informative but are population specific. Do not expect the same for your population even if you are working with the same source material (things change).
• You might be able to select for more cold tolerant populations through a general experiment of exposing material and getting those to survive to mate and lay eggs for the next generation.
• Be careful- selection of a cold tolerant population could result in a population not capable of handling high temperatures.

I hope you all enjoyed this post- let me know if you have anything you would like to have reviewed... that's what this blog is for! 

All the best-

Jeffery K. Tomberlin, PhD & BSF weather guide
Director, EVO Conversion Systems
​Twitter: @FliesFacility