09/20/07 Maggots as trout fish food, part 2

Yesterday we told you about researchers from the University of Idaho and Idaho State using black soldier flies to harvest black soldier fly larvae as a trout food. The Idaho trout industry, the nation's largest, is a 35 million dollar a year enterprise. ISU's Sophie St Hilaire says they know the maggots thrive in manure piles. ST HILAIRE "In addition to reducing the manure, creating a protein source, what you still are left with manure wise is actually a pretty good fertilizer too." University of Idaho's Wendy Sealy says they have developed a method to collect the larvae. SEALY "Where they'll basically crawl up a ramp and fall into a bucket and then if that bucket or vessel is closed at some point they're harvesting themselves." Sealy washes and freeze grinds them, then serves the black fly maggots to rainbow trout at the Hagerman Fish Experiment Station. SEALY "So we're going to be taking it out to harvestable size and doing a taste test to see if there are any affects on the product." The next step is to take their small scale research to a local dairy to see if the concept plays out economically. An alternative fish food, reduction of manure piles and a treated fertilizer, all benefits from this 120 thousand dollar study. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott