Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Jordan, Heather

Committee Member

Ballinger, Matthew

Committee Member

Tomberlin, Jeffery K.

Date of Degree

5-13-2022

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Microbiology

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Biological Sciences

Abstract

With a growing global population, food security and waste management strategies are needed (FAO, 2002b); insects have been promoted for these goals. Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) are endorsed for their ability in decomposition and use as feed (Bava et al., 2019; Swett Walker, 2018). Studies show the life cycle of BSFL is impacted by bacterial supplementation (Franks et al., 2021; Kooienga et al., 2020). We seek to determine the effects of supplementing BSFL diet with Pseudomonas putida 3P. We conducted two forms of a 10-day bench-top study observing larval mass, frass conversion, C:N content, and ammonia production with supplementation of Pseudomonas putida 3P in single and double-doses. Supplementation with P. putida results in roughly 1.5X larger larval wet and dry mass, variable concentrations of ammonia, and approximately 1.15X smaller C:N ratios in frass. This suggests interruption of larval rearing may affect volatile ammonia concentrations and inhibit P. putida behavior.

BSFL_P.p.xlsx (109 kB)
Data files used in analysis and graph production.

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