Black soldier fly
The black soldier fly is a black fly with a blue-green shine on its back and long feelers. It looks a lot like a wasp, but it is only a pretend wasp. Its babies are superstar recyclers that gobble up food scraps and turn them into compost.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Black soldier fly compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It has two little see-through windows on its tummy that make it look like it has a thin wasp waist.
One mother fly lays about 200 to 600 eggs at a time, close to compost or manure.
A baby larva is only 1 millimetre long when it hatches but grows to about 25 millimetres.
People use the larvae to turn food waste into compost.
The larvae are also raised in big insect farms as food for fish, chickens and pets.
Most asked questions about Black soldier fly
?Does the black soldier fly bite or sting?
No. It only looks like a wasp. It cannot sting and is harmless.
?What do black soldier fly larvae eat?
Almost any rotting food, like kitchen scraps, compost and manure.
?Why do people farm black soldier flies?
Because the larvae recycle food waste and are full of protein, which makes them good food for fish, farm animals and pets.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Hermetia illucens
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Stratiomyidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Stratiomyidae
- Lives on
- South America, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Hermetia illucens (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
Housefly
New World screwworm fly
Lovebug
Tsetse fly
Common fruit fly
Asian tiger mosquito
Ruby tiger
Yellow meadow ant
American pelecinid wasp
Eight-spotted forester
Fiddler beetle
Angle shades