A team from Texas A&M University have been utilising waste products left over from farming black soldier flies. The larvae of these flies contain many proteins and other nutritious compounds, so the immature insects are increasingly being raised for animal feed and to consume waste. However, the adults have a short life span after their breeding days are over and are quickly discarded.

The adult carcasses are being used as a new starting material for the researchers, especially as they contain chitin, a polymer chain with numerous uses.

“We’re taking something that’s quite literally garbage and making something useful out of it,” said Cassidy Tibbetts, a graduate student working on the project.

This nontoxic, biodegradable, sugar-based polymer strengthens the shell, or exoskeleton, of insects and crustaceans. Manufacturers already extract chitin from shrimp and crab shells for various applications, and Tibbetts has been applying similar techniques...