A young Halifax company that includes a NASA scientist and a gecko called Obie has announced that your supply of black soldier fly larvae is just a click away.

The company is a one-year-old enterprise called Oberland Agriscience, which has just launched an e-commerce site called obiesworms.com. It allows anyone to order live black soldier fly larvae, or BSFL, the things that grow in your green bins in the summertime.

It turns out that BSFL are a superb source of protein for such markets as pets, agriculture and aquaculture, and Oberland has launched a unit called Obie’s Worms to sell the live larvae to the owners of pet reptiles. The company even has an official mascot, a gecko called Obie, which survives on the company’s produce.

Oberland was founded by Greg Wanger, a NASA scientist who lives in Halifax and commutes to work at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. His goal was to develop a business that took advantage of all the organic waste collected in Halifax.

“My goal for Oberland is to build a sustainable company to close the food loop here in Nova Scotia,” said Wanger in an email. “It’s exciting to see the opportunity to transform green cart waste into nutrient-rich protein products.”

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The Oberland team, which includes vice-president of commercialization, Barbara Campbell, has spent the last year developing a BSFL production site at the Ragged Lake waste management facility near Halifax.

This insect farm uses green cart waste as food for the larvae, which are a high-quality, nutrient-rich form of protein with several markets. People who have pet reptiles and amphibians feed them live BSFL. Dried BSFL are a nutritious food supplement for poultry. And ground and dried BSFL are an excellent protein ingredient in aquaculture feed.

The initial market is direct sales to pet owners through the obiesworms.com website. Campbell said e-commerce in worms is “a fast, convenient way to service the live feeder market, one that all the major insect live feeder farms in the U.S. use.” These larvae have a shelf life of two to three weeks, making them a convenient product for shipping.

Company officials say Oberland is rooted in Atlantic Canada and does not plan to establish processing facilities outside the region. However, its products, whether live grubs for insectivore pets or manufactured products for poultry or aquaculture feed, will all be marketed across Canada.

Oberland Agriscience has raised more than $500,000 in equity capital from private investors, and received additional funding from such sources as Efficiency Nova Scotia, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Learnsphere CCM and others. The company has received Nova Scotia environment approvals as a waste receiver and is scaling up larvae production with the full life-cycle of flies, eggs and larvae on site.

Oberland now employs four full-time employees and will hire one more technician in the spring. It also plans to raise more capital later this year.

“Our pilot facility is just the first step,” said Wanger. “We are excited to develop partnerships with breweries, organic waste generators, aquaponics and aquaculture facilities that can benefit from Oberland’s technologies.”