Maggots can convert poultry litter into fertilizer, feed

A closed loop system relies on the life cycle of the housefly to sustainably transform poultry manure and other organic waste into fertilizer and animal feed.

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Composition and storage conditions impact the value of layer manure as a fertilizer. (Dr. Vincent Guyonnet)
Composition and storage conditions impact the value of layer manure as a fertilizer. (Dr. Vincent Guyonnet)

A closed loop system relies on the life cycle of the housefly to sustainably transform poultry manure and other organic waste into fertilizer and animal feed.

“We are taking something that nobody likes and wants and making it into something,” said Ivan Milin, president of Milinator Technologies.

Milin was inspired to create the system after learning about a similar system used to recycle bird manure during space travel.

“It’s interesting that the fly larvae were being taken on spaceships because they could recycle all organic things without making any pollution,” he said. “Wow, what a beautiful idea.”

Mimicking a natural process

In nature, flies lay eggs on animal manure. Once these eggs hatch, the maggots, also known as larvae, feed off the litter. Once grown, flies are typically consumed by birds or other animals.

The recycling system mimics this process.

The prototype system is made up of a series of conveyer belts. On the top belt, fresh poultry manure is mixed with fly eggs. In the next day, the eggs become maggots, which begin eating the litter. The conveyer belt continues to move a little bit each day as the maggots mature into adult houseflies so that new manure can be added.

Fertilizer and poultry feed

The system takes less than four days to produce an odorless, organic fertilizer and a protein-rich animal feed in the form of fly larvae. Once the maggots complete their lifecycle, they instinctively move out of the fertilizer into the larvae collector, so there is no need to separate the two end products.

Insects are a highly digestible natural source of protein for poultry. The feedstuff is high in energy such as lauric acid, a C-12 saturated fatty acid with demonstrated value-added, antimicrobial and antibacterial properties. 

Houseflies were chosen because of their short lifecycle and prolificacy. This type of flies is also less likely to be a vector for diseases than other species.

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