Biocontrol involves using natural enemies to control the target pests, and many companies in the world have specialized in the production of insects for agricultural applications. Producers of insects for biocontrol need an optimal diet to increase the yield in biomass as well as the fitness of the insect.
The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is among the most environmentally friendly insect pest control methods ever developed. It is currently applied in six continents and over 25 facilities. It consists of sterilizing the fruit flies and releasing them in nature to control the reproduction of wild insects. The main challenges of this strategy are to make it cost effective, more robust and more broadly applicable. Lallemand inactive yeasts are key ingredients in the fruit flies’ diet. Typically, yeasts are added in their inactive form, with an addition rate of 6% to 8%.
Different industry trials showed that Torula inactive yeast performs better than Brewers or Distillers yeast, with an average minimum 10% higher yield in larvae growth.
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The world’s growing population is leading to increasing competition for many resources, including proteins used for direct human nutrition and for animal feed. This context has encouraged the search for alternative sources of proteins, with a strong interest in the production of insects. The last few years have seen the very rapid development of new industry players focusing on larvae production which are already used in aquaculture and petfood applications.
Hermetia illucens (black soldier fly) larvae and other insects such as Tenebrio Molitor are able to bioconvert a vast range of organic waste streams into high quality protein and lipids, suitable to be used as food and feed. However, the reproductive (egg production) and rearing (larval growth and survival) performances can be highly influenced by the larval feed source and can lead to high fluctuations of production outputs (protein and lipids). Therefore, utilization of supplement such as yeast-based nutrients, aims to consolidate the feed quality and increase production outputs are of high interest.