These insects are helping Singapore save the planet
- The black soldier fly larvae bred at Insectta, the Lion City’s first urban insect farm, are a new line of defence in Singapore’s war on food waste
- Each month, they convert about 6.5 tonnes of food waste into 2,700 litres of organic fertiliser – and, sometimes, become food themselves
Thousands of plump, writhing maggots lie in rows of vertically stacked blue trays, ready to chow down on the special of the day: mounds of soy pulp and spent grains, all of which will have been devoured by this time tomorrow.
Elsewhere, flies swarm inside a netted enclosure, hundreds covering a wall rack in a teeming black mass, depositing 600 to 800 eggs in tiny clutches. This is the mating chamber, or “love shack” as the workers here call it – the place where the magic happens.
More than 1 million adult flies live inside the mating chamber, helping to sustain the insect population within Insectta’s walls.
Most people might be squeamish about being surrounded by bugs all day, but insect farmer and company co-founder Chua Kai-Ning, 24, is unfazed.
“With insect farming, it’s a very new concept. We want to break ceilings and invent the wheel,” she said.
