My heart leapt to my throat when I saw that the larvae had crawled out of the tray into the netting. The stench didn’t help matters either. It was my first time trying to transform food waste into compost with black soldier fly larvae - and things weren’t going all that well.

I informed Sin Yee, the Experience and Innovation Manager, curious to know what remedy she would offer. Undaunted, she offered to come down to our site promptly. Upon observing the state of the larvae, she suggested that the food waste might have been too watery. She came well-prepared because she brought along moldy bread that could absorb the moisture as well as peanut husk that could mask the smell. Her timely assistance was comforting - and instrumental to us harvesting frass from our maiden attempt.

We signed up for a 4-week experiential programme, but it was enough time for our students to experience two rounds of harvesting frass. Needless to say, our second attempt to transform food waste into compost went more smoothly! I could never thank Ento Industries enough for guiding us every step of the way and ensuring that our students applied their observation and deductive reasoning skills.