Insects

One of the insects most commonly used by humans are bees. In this case, we don’t consume the bee for meat or give it to our animals, but rather farm the wonderful honey that they make. If you’re interested in more information about bees, you can take a look at our how-tos on building your own bee hive, bait hive and wax melter.

For the purpose of this article, it’s the wax worms that we’re more interested in. These bugs often live in symbiosis with bees, eating the comb that bees make. When in balance, they do not harm the hive, and can in fact serve as cleaners. However, when the health of the hive is compromised, the population of the wax worms can increase too much and become detrimental.

You can help the bees by harvesting the out of control wax worms. We haven’t yet had a problem with them in our hives, so we don’t speak from experience, but it is said that of all insects, the wax worm is the most delicious. It makes sense; all they eat is wax and honey. What’s not to like?

Mealworms are the larvae of the darkling beetle, and they are a very easy insect to raise in a small space. There are three main stages in development: adult beetles, larvae (worms), and pupae. The three should be kept apart to avoid the adult beetles eating any of the helpless pupae.

Things like temperature and moisture can affect each stage, but to get an idea of the time scale, here is a breakdown of their life cycle:

• A Darkling beetle reaches maturity just a few days after it has emerged from its cocoon. During the 2 to 3-month life span, a female can lay hundreds, if not thousands, of eggs.
• The egg takes between 4 and 19 days to hatch (average of 12 days).
• It hatches as a tiny, whitish larva, which is hard to see at first.
• The larva will go through several molts (up to 20), shedding its exoskeleton as it grows. The last molt occurs about 3 months after it has hatched from an egg, whereby it will be golden brown and between 1” and 1.4” long.
• If you don’t harvest the mealworm at this stage, it will then pupate, encasing itself in a cream, hard case that doesn’t move much or eat.
• After 6-18 days, a beetle will emerge. It will be pale brown and weak at first, but will darken to a black, shiny beetle after a couple of days, and the cycle can begin again.

Wheat bran, a byproduct of wheat production, is typically used as the feed, but animal manures, especially dry ones from herbivores like rabbits or guinea pigs, can be included at a 1:1 ratio. They also need a bit of vegetable matter, like carrot peels, potatoes, or squash for water. They are highly efficient at converting feed into protein, with a FCR of 2:1 .

This is an insect that we have started to farm properly. With the right set-up, using a few square feet of floor space, you can create a tower that puts out a few of pounds of worms each week.

They are a great supplement for omnivores like poultry or pigs. We have tamed many baby birds using these little treats. However, they are also very good for humans to eat. We eat them on occasion, and they are really tasty. They have a slightly nutty flavor (like pecan), and the texture is crunchy, subtle, and much better than some other insects.

For our own use, we put a bunch in a bag in the freezer for about 15 minutes, and we then fry them quickly with a dash of butter and garlic.

There are people all around the world that eat grasshoppers, and some that consider them a delicacy. They are high in protein, plentiful and easy to harvest. If you don’t think about what you’re eating, they’re not bad.

Grasshoppers are a plague where we live, and thus very plentiful. We therefore don’t have to expend any time and infrastructure in farming them. We will often catch a bunch in season, freeze them, and give them to the poultry in winter.

Please not that there are many types of grasshoppers, some of which are poisonous. If your chickens and guineas won’t touch a particular kind, you shouldn’t either.

We have eaten grasshoppers on several occasions. The best time to catch them is in the evening, when they climb high in plants to roost. Try to get younger ones, not big females that have already laid their eggs.

1. Put your catch into clean water. This will not only kill them, but also empty their digestive tract.
2. Discard the water and pat them dry with a paper towel.
3. Fry them in some butter, chili and garlic.
4. Remove the legs and eat the bodies.

They’re not as good as mealworms, but they’re not too bad. It’s the more the texture than the taste (which is of garlic and chili) that you can get hung up on.

Something we haven’t yet tried, but intend to, is grubs. Whenever we dig through our compost piles, we always find these huge, nasty looking grubs. They are similar to maggots in appearance, but much bigger and fatter.

We’re not a hundred percent sure, but we think they are the larva of either June/ Japenese or Rhinoceros beetles.

They are said to be good to eat, and the main reason that we haven’t yet partaken of this culinary delight is that our chickens would get very upset with us. Whenever we are turning a compost pile that the chickens don’t have access to, they gather around, outside the fence. They look at you with their beady little eyes and somehow compel you to throw them the treats. It’s perhaps shameful to admit how easily we are manipulated by our birds, but we do get their eggs, so fair’s fair. One day we’ll keep the grubs and give them a try for ourselves.