A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources, and Development

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1995

Seven experimental trials were conducted to investigate alternative methods( i.e. without animal manure) for commercial maggot production.These trials included: selection of suitable ingredients for the preparation of maggot substrate ( trial 1,2&6 ); determination of the optimum liming rate( trial 3); investigation of the bulk density of the substrate( trial 4); investigation on the use of fish waste as nursing substrate (trial 5) and investigation on a commercial scale maggot production on a pilot scale (trial 7 ). The results showed that the replacement of cassava chips with 8 % banana peel, 0.8 % mineral premix, 8 % rice bran and 8 % Leucaena leaves did not significantly affect average maggot production, but rice bran decreased survival rate from 37.6 % to 27.5 % and Leucaena leaves deterred maggot growth. The addition of 8 % molasses significantly increased maggot production, but 8 % cafeteria waste highly decreased it. The results also showed that mixing 6 grams minced rice straw per hundred gram substrate raised maggot production by 10.7 times. With the same ingredients, a disign of using 5 % fish waste for nursing instead of mixing it with them increased maggot production by 35%. Increment of agricultural lime from 0 to 30 % had an inverse effect on maggot production. The replacement of fish waste (15 %) in grow-out mixed substrate with molasses decreased average maggot production from 6.0 g to 1.1 g I 100 g substrate. It is concluded that molasses is a suitable ingredient for maggot production and increasing bulk density by using minced rice straw and nursing young maggots with fish waste can highly increase maggot production both through promoting mean individual weight and survival rate.