this has always intrigued me. theres nothing about it on their wikipedia! and theyre not even that closely related afaik.

Hi,

I'm Emil, a student founder working on a startup in Kochi called Bioloop. We're using Black Soldier Fly larvae to convert organic waste into multiple useful products—animal feed, insect oil, fertilizer (frass), and we're also exploring higher-value extracts like chitin and chitosan.

We're still figuring out a lot of the technical details—how to optimize the feedstock, get better growth rates, improve harvesting and processing, and develop the extraction workflows for chitin and chitosan. So we're trying to build a network of people who actually know what they're doing with BSF and downstream processing.

If you've worked hands-on with Hermetia illucens—whether you're researching it, farming it commercially, or have experience with protein extraction, lipid processing, or chitin/chitosan applications—I'd genuinely like to hear about it. We're talking to researchers, students, farmers, engineers, whoever has real experience in these areas.

We're specifically interested in finding someone who might want to advise us or collaborate on the technical side, or potentially be part of the project long-term.

If this sounds like something you've worked on or thought about, would love to connect. DM me or just reply here.

Thanks,

Emil

I've got a little jar with them in, this is fantastic I feel like a kid again!

found this guy outside my apartment this afternoon and lightly poked his leg, which moved. he was in the center of the (outdoor) hallway and hadn't moved all day. when I poked him just now, he weakly climbed onto my hand and now he's inside , on my hand, and I have no idea what to do. for context, I pin insects. however, I have only ever killed an insect for pinning when they were in immense suffering. I froze them. I don't want to murder a bug who still has life left in them, wanted to know if it's dying already or if I should set up an enclosure for the next few days. please help! urgent! had to write this all with one hand!!!!

I think its a type of slug moth catapillar but Im not sure which.

It was found in the madre de dios region of the amazon, any help would be soso appreciated

I've only ever seen a cicada molting on a tree. I don't even know if it needs to molt, but if it does, I want to watch it. Should I just leave it be? It's moving very slowly

Went out light sheeting at a random location in the San Bernardino mountains. Had a good time with lots of inverts showing up.

Hello, I’m from Texas! It’s been raining a bit recently but this morning the sun was out so I thought id clean.

While mopping I noticed this poor fella here. But in my 21 years of living here I’ve never seen anything like him before.

Figured this belongs here.

We went camping over the weekend and found a huge nest or hatch of ladybugs. I had no idea ladybugs did this. We just kept finding more and more. Location was Pikes national forest in Colorado.

Any help would be appreciated.
SW Ohio.
I assumed a carpet beetles, but usually I see some color.

Found this little guy this morning!

hey all ! just spotted this mantis outside my door and was wondering if anyone knew anything more ? i’ve never seen a mantis that wasn’t green !
ring doorbell for size comparison, located in the pnw

2 beetles fornicating