English Industry Blog on Hermetia illucens and BSF Farming

Stacked plastic crates in a working warehouse
BSF Farming Tutorials

Profitable Black Soldier Fly Farming: an operator manual from a working plant

What is in the English BSF operating manual, who it is for, and the thesis behind it: smaller plants close to waste, and unit economics before scale.

Marcos Aguayo •
Black soldier fly larvae feeding on organic scraps
Insect Protein

BSF Substrate Formulation: Ash Is Now a Performance Variable

A new Waste Management meta-analysis puts ash beside protein and fat in BSFL process control, with useful thresholds for substrate pilots.

Marcos Aguayo •
Commercial fish feed pellets used in aquaculture diets
Aquaculture

Fishmeal Price Spikes Are Not a BSF Strategy

Innovafeed's white paper is a useful warning for insect suppliers: scarcity may win attention, but BSF must defend a role after prices normalize.

Marcos Aguayo •
Waves in the Pacific Ocean
Aquaculture

El Niño, Aquafeed Resilience and BSF Qualification

The next El Niño is an aquafeed resilience test. BSF only helps if it is already qualified: specified, trialled and contractable before the shock.

Marcos Aguayo •
Fishing boats in Bahía El Ferrol, Chimbote, Peru
Aquaculture

Peru Anchoveta Ban: Feed Security and BSF

Peru's 2026 anchoveta ban and fishmeal near US$3,000/t are a feed-security shock. BSF is an alternative, not a tonne-for-tonne fishmeal replacement.

Marcos Aguayo •
Aquaculture feed and fish farming infrastructure
Aquaculture

Food security starts with feed

European aquaculture does not have an innovation problem. It has a material sovereignty problem: it does not control enough of the critical ingredients needed to feed its own growth.

Marcos Aguayo •
The hemicycle of the European Parliament in Brussels
Insect Protein

EU Insect Feedstock and Substrate Rules Are the Bottleneck

The EU opened insect PAP for aqua, poultry and pig feed. Catering waste, manure and meat-and-bone meal stay banned. Substrate access is still the bottleneck.

Marcos Aguayo •
Rainbow trout at a fish farm
Aquaculture

Full-Fat Meal, Defatted Meal, Oil or Chitin: The Rainbow Trout Fractionation Study BSF Producers Should Read

Riesenbach et al. tested BSF full-fat meal, defatted meal, oil and chitin in low- and high-soy rainbow trout diets. The result is a useful warning against treating BSF as one ingredient and a positive signal for low-inclusion oil and chitin retention.

Marcos Aguayo •
Soil sampling between rows of soybean plants
Aquaculture

The Rainbow Trout Soybean Trial Makes the Best Case for Low-Inclusion BSF

Ma et al. tested 2.5% and 5% whole-body or defatted BSFL in high-soy rainbow trout diets. The result is one of the clearest arguments for selling BSF as a complementary functional ingredient rather than only as fishmeal replacement.

Marcos Aguayo •
Fish feeding at the surface of an earth pond on a fish farm
Aquaculture

BSF as a Functional Aquafeed Additive

Onomu and Okuthe's 2024 review: position BSF as a functional aquafeed additive for health, resilience and feed efficiency, not crude protein.

Marcos Aguayo •
Fish meal and oil factory buildings on a harbor
Aquaculture

Fishmeal Tightness Gives BSF a Stronger Role in the Next Aquafeed Cycle

A 28% fall in global fishmeal output in Q1 2026 strengthens the commercial case for BSF ingredients in aquafeed: not as a crude substitute, but as a resilient, functional and increasingly strategic component in diversified feed formulations.

Marcos Aguayo •
Rainbow trout crowded in a hatchery raceway
Aquaculture

Functional Feed Additives Are the Better Frame for BSF in Aquafeeds

Aquaculture Magazine's review of functional feed additives is a useful prompt for the insect sector: BSFL meal may be more valuable as a targeted gut, immune and diet-stability tool than as a blunt fishmeal replacement story.

Marcos Aguayo •
Dried black soldier fly larvae as an insect feed ingredient where mineral profile and substrate design influence product value
Insect Protein

BSFL Minerals Can Be Steered: Brewery Spent Grains Outperformed

Minerals in BSFL can be steered via substrate. A 2026 paper found brewery spent grains outperformed conventional feed for zinc and manganese accumulation.

Marcos Aguayo •
Bacterial cultures growing on an agar plate in a microbiology lab
Insect Protein

Bacillus cereus in BSF Rearing: Larvae Are Not a Sanitation Step

A new Food Microbiology paper reports that Bacillus cereus persisted through Hermetia illucens rearing, with larvae and frass requiring post-rearing treatment even when authorized substrates were used.

Marcos Aguayo •