Simplified Black Soldier Fly Approach (SIMBA) Reproduction Unit Standard Operating Procedure

A simplified BSF approach (SIMBA) can be suitable for: 

• A first step entry into BSF waste processing, conducted as a part time side activity to explore and learn more about the practical aspects of BSF reproduction or use this as demonstration of BSF waste processing.
• An established small farm that wants to produce BSF larvae as feed for their chicken, pigs and/or fish but has limited human resources and can allocate only a few hours per week to BSF activities.

A research centre that would like to operate a small-scale reproduction unit to then use flies, larvae, or frass for research, or for training and demonstration purposes. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) in BSF farming play a critical role in ensuring the success, safety, and scalability which connects to effective reproduction in the BSF life cycle, as well as consistent output and quality of larvae, frass, and by-products. SOPs help standardize tasks (and their timing at different stages of the process). This SOP focuses on the reproduction unit. 

In this manual, we focus only on the reproduction unit of such a simplified approach. The reproduction unit has the purpose to create optimal conditions to maintain the lifecycle including: BSF pupation, mating, laying of eggs, hatching and first days of larvae feeding while keeping the labour effort as low as possible. This reproduction unit SOP complements another SOP, the grow-out unit SOP, which instead focuses on growth of the larvae and organic waste reduction