Includes Indexes and References

Addressing the sustainable management of faecal matter has become one of the pressing challenges of our time. Owing to this, there has been a focus on non-sewed sanitation, such as onsite sanitation technology, especially in urban areas of low- and middle-income countries. However, even with the use of onsite technology, there is a limited management system in place for the resulting accumulation of faecal waste. Consequently, the accumulation of other organic waste, such as food waste, is also a global issue that demands our attention and innovative solutions. One such innovative solution is utilizing black soldier fly(BSF) technology, which enables efficient bioconversion of faecal waste into valuable resources. The study, assessed the oviposition performance of BSF alongside the adult emergence rates, utilizing a variety of feed substrates, varying cage sizes of the same colour (white), and different coloured flexible plastic tubes as ovipositing structures. Flexible plastic tubes used were coloured white, yellow, blue, and black while feed substrates used were faecal waste (FM), kitchen waste (KW), and a combination of the two. Three cages of dimensions 2.5 × 1.2 m, 2 × 1 m, and 1 × 1 m were used for oviposition and adult emergence tests, while flexible plastic tubes were used to collect eggs for comparative purposes. Approximately 1 kg of each substrate was placed into each feeding tray with 5 groups of five 5-day-old larvae and monitored until the pupa stage, after which adult emergence and oviposition were determined. Data was analysed by use of SPSS, by conducting one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey post-hoc to compare means. The results indicated that BSF fed on FW supplemented with KW achieved the highest weight of egg production of 9.38g(P< 0.05) while the FM recorded the least weight of 4.65 g. Additionally, the biggest cage size was found to be most effective for oviposition (P < 0.05) with egg weight of 16.38g. On the other hand, this study observed no significant (P> 0.5) differences in the emergence of BSF across the various rearing substrates, which included KW, FM, and a combined treatment of FM and KW. The percentage of adult emergence across these feed substrates ranged from 70.42% to 82.53%. The results also suggested that a black-coloured egg tube was the most preferred site for oviposition. The findings establish effective and economical methods to boost the production of BSF, handle and recycle wastes from on-site facilities and retrieve resources that can be utilized as animal feed and organic fertilizer.