Student Poster Display
Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology
Student
Student Competition
Natalie M. Johnston (she/her/hers)
Graduate Student (MS)
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska
Georgina Victoria Bingham, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska
Gary Brewer (he/him/his)
Professor
University of Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska
The black soldier fly (BSF), Hermetia illucens, is a beneficial insect recognized as a quality feedstock and for their ability to efficiently reduce a wide range of organic waste as larvae. Because BSF can colonize a wide range of substrates, including those used by pest species such as house flies (Musca domestica) and stable flies (SF), Stomoxys calcitrans, they are also potential biological controls for those species. Breeding sites colonized with BSF larvae may deter SF oviposition and intraspecies larval interactions, not including direct predation, may interfere with the successful development of SF larvae. To test this, we ran simultaneous and delayed inoculation trials of BSF and SF larvae into a standard media and assessed larval developmental success and survivorship. If co-inhabiting Diptera species are suppressed by BSF larvae, then BSF would be a potential biological control agent for livestock producers.