An Artificial Mating and Ovipositing Facility for Black Soldier Flies

Persistently exploring ever more sustainable and economically promising alternative protein sources is a grand challenge that humanity must tackle today. Edible insects, as one long-standing food source for mankind, are attracting considerable attention in both academia and capital markets due to the exacerbated global food crisis and new technological advancements. To massively and safely rear edible insects, all stages in their lifecycle must be carefully engineered, monitored, and controlled. This work aims to first investigate the natural mating and ovipositing behaviors of black soldier flies and then engineer an artificial environment that well suits their needs. In particular, a modularized and scalable facility equipped with dedicated light recipe and climate control has been designed and built. The results of our comparative experiments revealed that black soldier flies in the artificial facility tended to have better mating and oviposition quantitatively and qualitatively as compared to the control group in the nature environment. As a result, this work demonstrated that within a well-controlled and comfortable artificial environment, it is possible and feasible to stably breed black soldier flies in large scale. This paves the foundation for industrialized insect-based bioconversion.