 Katie is a graduate student at Purdue in the entomology department and she was looking at the utility of black soldier fly compost. So I'm going to turn it over to Katie. Do you need help? No, I got it. Okay. Yeah, it's good for now. Okay, hi everybody. So yeah, I'm talking about black soldier fly composting and it's So getting right into it, I just want to go over some general biology. So there are four main stages to this insect as it's a true fly. So it looks like a wasp. It's a wasp mimic, but it is a fly. So the first stage is the egg, which will spend about three days on average working, trying to come out developing. And then for the larval stage, which is the next 18 day period, this stage is a detritor, meaning it eats dead and decomposing organic matter similar to what earthworms do in vermicomposts. And another important thing about this particular fly is the adults do not eat anything. The pupae don't obviously say, you know, are pupae. But that feature makes them great as it makes them a non-pest in any system they're introduced to. And the cool thing that I always focused on is this 18 day period where the larvae are developing. And in this stage they are able to acquire a high amount of protein and a high amount of fat content. So just to give you some numbers, as you can see we're looking at crude protein and crude fat. And then right beside it is the sample. So the test animal or the sample that is being tested for the nutrients and then study at the end if you are interested in looking into the raw data. So as you can see, black soldier flies will typically have about 40% crude protein in their little bodies for one-core samples. And they'll typically have about 20% crude fat. So these are huge numbers for their size. And when you compare that to chicken feed you can see that the stator amounts have around 16 to 22% crude protein in hand, or 5% of crude fat depending on the type of feed that you decide to do your chickens. And this is important to think about because you can introduce black soldier flies, larvae, or pupae into these livestock systems to spike those nutrients that they're getting and give them a more diverse diet. So that kind of identifies this first loop here on the left. As you can see, you can feed black soldier fly waste products such as manure, food waste, or plant waste. And then those larvae will develop into a supplemental livestock feed and the whole cycle can continue. So now looking at the second half, it introduced like that plant waste and the compost that these larvae produce. So here are the NPK values along the total organic carbon from the black soldier fly compost that we were able to generate in the lab, along with a commercially available composted cow manure known as black cow. And as you can see, the nitrogen and the organic carbon pretty much double in the amount. So there's a lot more nutrients available in the black soldier fly compost compared to this particular example of black cow. And you can see that the phosphate goes up by 101 pools. So there's a lot more nutrients that are available with this black soldier fly compost compared to that composted cow manure. And you can aid and ease certain aspects of soil health. So organic matter content, maintain pH, and adding those micro nutrients through those higher PK values provided by these black soldier fly larvae. Which brings me back to this. So the best place for the system to be introduced, I believe, is within urban systems because of the amount of waste that is produced just by people living by food waste. Or one of the food streets that we had in my study were groomers ran. So it was left over after you grew veer. The black soldier fly loved them and we saw the highest protein content from those, a particular variety. So they're really, really awesome insects and I hope some of you decide to work with them in the future. So yeah, I'm just pointing out the waste streams that black soldier fly, by introducing it into the system, were able to give something that previously didn't have a value about and make it a closed circular agricultural or a circular economy. Which brings me to my last slide. I do have a bin here that I'm going to talk about here in just a second. Along with several sets of instructions if you are interested in building your own compost bin. Along with a husband began for how to raise black soldier fly. So now I'm going to come over here where my bin is. So this is the 18 gallon bin. There are a few key features to this. The first being on this side you'll see two circular holes. This is where the ramp will go in. It's important to provide a ramp to black soldier fly larvae because during their pre-pupil stage they'll start to shift in color. And they'll try and find a dry place to keep hay as they need to let their wings completely dry out in order to use them. So that brings me to the ramp. I'll set the microphone down so I can put this together. So this is what the ramp looks like for this prototype that we developed. As you can see there are entry holes where the pupae will enter. It's placed in the bin at an angle so it can reach all levels of the bin. And it's important to provide this exit hole here so those pupae can crawl out. Another important thing to consider when you're rearing black soldier fly is the humidity levels. So if it's too moist or wet within the bin, the larvae will jump ship literally. It's too wet for them and they will crawl up the sides before they're ready to. So you have to keep an eye on it. And the last thing is the lid. So there are two important parts to this. The first being this T-joint at the top. So that's to allow the black soldier fly adults to come back in and lay eggs. As they prefer to over cause it, which means lay eggs, near the scent of their own lawn. So they're attracted to other black soldier fly larvae. And the last part that is super important is this egg laying substrate. You'll see that it's just sections of corrugated cardboard clipped with a paper clip and zip tied to the top. This is very attractive to the black soldier fly adult female as it provides a small opening for them to lay their eggs in. And it allows them to drop down into the compost when they hatch. So if you're interested in looking at the compost that was generated, and then the remaining exoskeletons and adult fly bodies that we collected, both of these can be used as a soil amendment that are both relatively high in nitrogen. So, yeah. With that, does anyone have any questions? Divert my compost? So, the NPK relative is up, you're asking? Yeah. So I believe that they're roughly the same. When you generate a compost at home, you'll typically, if you do the right brown and gray ratio, you get like five, three, four, I believe. That's the standard one. So I believe urban composts are very similar to black soldier fly composts in Africa. And then you had a question? It was the same question. Perfect. Yes, absolutely. So black soldier flies are a little bit more hearty and they go through material a bit faster than earthworms do. And this is partly because they have a harder mouth part and they scrape at the food. However, it is important to keep the substrate moist enough for them to be able to scrape because if you just throw them in dry material, they're not going to be able to make it. Yes? What are they called soldier flies? That's a great question. I'm not sure why they're called soldier flies. Oh, yes. Do you think they compete with other insects? From what I've seen, not really. The larvae can compete with other detractors in the lab when the substrate got too moist. We had a mite problem, which is really interesting. And we have to call that colony, but that's a different story. But I would say as long as you're keeping the substrate at a good humidity level or moist level, the larvae should be just fine. They shouldn't be outcompeted by anything. What about the adults? They don't eat anything. So the only thing that they're really competing their for is good egg laying substrate. And like I said, they prefer the smell of their own young or they're able to pick up on fresh composts as well. So you might actually find some in your composts here in Indiana during the summer months. Yes? Okay. So as we try to war the larval stage, they are recycling those nutrients and putting them back into the system. And the adults are providing, I would say, feed for predators because they are really full of all of those nutrients. So you can find them in the neotropics, but they're pretty much everywhere at this point. So they're as far down as South America and South Africa and then as far up as Canada and Russia. What's the winter? It depends on how full the winter gets. So on more extreme like Indiana cold weathers, they'll typically die out just because it gets a little cold. But over like early spring and well late spring and early summer, the adults will travel farther north and they'll over cause it and they'll just spread naturally because of dispersion. So again, if you are interested in being able to feel the compost or the leftover insect bits, you can come up. I also have instructions for how to build your own 18 gallon bin or a 55 gallon bin. And then I also have that as a guide. So thank you.