Black Soldier Fly Larvae Reduce Noxious Odors Associated with Animal Wastes

Great news!  The Tomberlin lab recently published a paper where they examined the production of noxious odors associated with animal waste and demonstrated BSF larvae actually suppress many of these odors- another major win for the BSF as sustainable agriculture.

The article is fresh off the press:

Beskin, K. V., C. D. Holcomb, J. A. Cammack, T. L. Crippen, A. H. Knap, S. T. Sweet, and J. K. Tomberlin. Larval digestion of different manure types by the black soldier fly (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) impacts associated volatile emissions. Waste Management.

As many of you know, livestock production plays a critical role in protein production in many parts of the world. As economies of countries grow, so does the livestock industry.  With that said, there are issues (USDA website contains a review) associated with this industry- or as I like to say- opportunities. 

We know the BSF can be used to recycle these wastes- especially manure produced by cattle, poultry, or swine.  We also know that by recycling such wastes and producing protein there is less likelihood of the waste impacting the environment. This makes sense; I mean, if it isn't sitting on the ground decomposing but rather being quickly recycled by the BSF, let issues, right?

Well, the study by Beskin et al (2018) is one of the first to quantify the reduction in noxious odors associated with swine, dairy, and poultry manure by the BSF.  What did they determine?

Black soldier fly larvae reduced emissions of all volatile organic compounds by 87% or greater.

This study is a bench top study- so more work is needed at the industrial scale- just to make sure there results from Beskin et al. (2018) are translatable.  But, regardless, these results are very promising.

Great job, Kelly Beskin and team at Tomberlin lab!! 
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Author

Jeff Tomberlin, PhD, Proud Advisor to Amazing Graduate Students
Twitter: @FliesFacility