Black Soldier Fly larvae farming

Why breed black soldier fly larvae? Black soldier fly also called SBF (black soldier fly) is interesting because of the proteins and fats in the larva for use in animal feed.

Are you interested in breeding larvae of the Black Soldier flies on a small or larger scale? Then you have come to the best place with us. For standard small-scale breeding with manual feeding and harvesting or switching to semi/full automic breeding, we can help you with the necessary products.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our product specialists.

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Step 1. Egg to Larva

The eggs can be hatched directly above the feed. As soon as the young larva weighs 5 mg in +/- 10 days, the rearing of harvestable larvae begins. Divide the young larvae over plastic breeding trays. Stack the filled containers up to 8 to 9 pieces high and place a transport roller underneath for a flexible work floor.

Production only or also reproduction

If the larvae are also used for reproduction, you make two workflows at this point. One for breeding harvestable larvae and one for breeding a new generation flies. You can make these flows recognizable by choosing two colored containers or by means of labelling.

Step 2a. Production: Harvesting the larva

The tray can be harvested as soon as all feed has been processed into dry powder. This can take 7 to 14 days. The larva will now weigh between 100 and 300 mg. Shake the larva through a 3 or 4 mm sieve into the container below.

The walls of the breeding container (art. SB-642312-0203-9) are ideally not too low, because the worms crawl around more and need to be stirred more often than, for example, mealworms.

Strain the larvae from the breeding container to continue breeding. Custom-made frame with stainless steel grid 500x340x75mm (art.no. MW-503475-FRAME).

Step 2b. Reproduction: Larva to prepop

The larva for reproduction receive extra, high-quality food, because the bigger the flies, the more eggs they lay. Once they are the desired size, strain the pre-pupae from the substrate and place them in a darkened pupa hatch or chamber until they are a full-fledged pupa (+/- 7 days).

Step 3. Pop to Fly

The pupas will transform into flies. The guideline for 1 kg pupas is 1 m³ net (5000 to 8000 flies). Lure the young flies from the darkened pupa storage to the fly cage. Place lighting above the fly cages. This stimulates the mating of the flies.

Step 4. Fly to Egg

Place egg collector near the lure. An egg collector has many cracks and crevices where the female flies will lay their eggs. The eggs can be harvested from 6 days after the first flies have hatched to two weeks afterwards.