Structural changes and growth of animal production systems have resulted in greater volumes of manure. Current manure storage methods pose a potential environmental threat. Lessening these issues is a key concern for the animal production industry. The primary aim of this research was to evaluate black soldier fly (BSF) performance when fed poultry, swine, or dairy manure at different rates (18 or 27 g/2 d until 40% prepupation). The results indicated that larvae fed with the control diet (Gainesville diet) were the heaviest (+31–70%); however, for other life-history traits, those fed the higher feed rate of poultry manure produced comparable results to the control. Larvae fed more resource, regardless of manure type, weighed more as larvae (+3–9%), pupae (+22–48%), and adults (+18–42%), developed faster (up to 3–4 d), had a higher percentage reach the prepupal stage (+2–16%), lived longer as adults (+1 d), and converted more resource to biomass (up to 1% more) than those fed at the lower rate. Yet, no difference was detected in dry matter (DM) reduction across feed rate for a given manure type. Based on these results, all three manure types can be digested by black soldier fly larvae, thus demonstrating their potential for waste management.

House flies are typically revered as pests because they are a nuisance and carriers of pathogens; however, they are capable of converting animal wastes into valuable biomass that may be suitable for inclusion in animal diets, which has been explored for industrialisation outside of the United States. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the life-history (life cycle) performance, dry matter reduction, and bioconversion of three different manure types fed to house fly larvae. Treatments consisted of 100 1-day-old larvae fed either 9 or 18 g of swine, dairy, or poultry manure every other day until 40% pupation. The control diet (50% wheat bran, 30% alfalfa meal, 20% cornmeal) produced superior results across all parameters examined. When comparing across feed rate for a manure type, larvae weighed more (4-16%) when provided the higher feed rate. A similar trend occurred for pupal (16-25%) and adult (8-25%) weight, as well as adult longevity (7-28%). In regards to those fed manure, significant differences (P<0.05) were detected for time to pupation, percentage pupation, adult weight and adult longevity, dry matter reduction, and bioconversion, across feed rates and manure types. Specifically, among those provided manure, larvae fed poultry manure delivered comparable results to those provided Gainesville diet except for time to pupariation, pupal weight, and percentage pupariation. Data from this study are necessary to advance industrial systems for managing animal wastes with house flies.