On Wednesday we were just sitting down to lunch when we had an unexpected visitor. Professor Kyall Zenger from James Cook University popped in and asked if he could look in our compost bins in his search for black soldier fly larvae. We said yes, and then went about interrogating him about all the things!

So …he is currently going around Australia collecting samples to map the variety of black soldier flies that have made there way to various parts of the country … and doing genetic testing on them. Why we asked? He is looking into using insects for sustainable agriculture and aquaculture food production - and black soldier flies have both a short lifespan and are very high in protein. So he is testing to find the best flies (I assume this means the ones that are both the biggest and highest in protein, in the shortest lifecycle).

He was telling us that they have already started mass production of the black soldier fly for aquaculture food. And explained that insects are a much more sustainable food/protein source for fish than other fish (what with overfishing etc.). How interesting right?

We’ll look forward to following the outcome of his research … and perhaps, just perhaps our compost bins could be the source of THE BEST BLACK SOLDIER FLY IN AUSTRALIA … and ACC could become FAMOUS in this new endeavour.