First I'm going to share a bit about my past which has allowed me to look at the present and see an instant solution to what I see is a common problem, what has prompted me to start Gourmet Bugs.
Guess it's the way my brain is wired, I can't help it. When I take an interest in something it starts and I have no control over it, even if I try. Visions of ways to create or improve on existing methods or conditions come like a flood, so much so at times I can't sleep or hardly think of anything else until closure is reached by accomplishing whatever it is that's taken up residence in my head...or something of greater interest happens to step in.
More often than not, the completion of a certain goal is hampered by lack of funds required to finish and that is often followed by long periods of depression and boredom. I've had some great completions of visions and given away many ideas that have benefitted alot of people over the years but I don't feel the least bit bad about that and in fact I get great satisfaction just knowing I helped at least one person somehow. Seems to make it worth the trying.
There has been one constant over the years I can think of that I do know well how to do and at this very moment in time I'm thinking hey, I'm nearly 49 years old and it's time to settle down from the jumping on every idea that comes along that in reality I have very little if any certaintee of succeeding in and settle down with something I know for a fact I can succeed in doing.
Regardless if raising insects works out for me or not, I know worms...and something is telling me that raising insects while using worms in the process are a match made for each other.
I looked at Entomophagy, the practice of people eating insects for food very hard over the last several days and everything I would consider as something on the very verge of exploding in a business sense is there. It just makes sense to me given the current state of things and is inevitable. I believe the efforts of those who have promoted this practice over the last 20 years or so to us spoiled westerner's is about to pay off and big, for some who had the foresight and prepared, it already is.
Honestly, I have never been what some would probably consider "a good business man". I think everything costs too much and I genuinly feel bad about charging people a price for something that I myself would not want to pay. Even over twenty years ago when bait shops charged $1.25 for a dozen worms in a cup, people came to my house and dug their own worms from one of my twenty outdoor refrigerator worm bins for $0.01 each. They were happy and I was happy to be able and provide that service.
See, I did not have much invested in that worm farm. The junk refrigerators were free as were the newspaper and cardboard bedding. I did not supplement the worm's feed, they happily ate cardboard and got fat & happy on it. Only other thing added was a handfull of sand to each bin for the worm's gizzards. Matter of fact I believe I paid $10 for a few thousand worms from a farmer in a not-so-far away town and within two years they expanded from one bed into twenty beds and those were nearing critical mass due to breeding. I could not get rid of them fast enough.
Those were my wild years. My yard was a mess, I knew it but didn't care. One day upon returning from work I discovered my hedge had been ripped open, all my worm bins had been loaded up, hauled away and there was a letter with a bill for services rendered from the city for cleaning up my yard and I was ordered to finish what they started or face further fines. I was pissed to say the least but was in no position to fight the city and they along with everybody in town knew it. I was not exactly a law abiding citizen and will leave it at that.
Some years went by and my life took a turn for the good, back to bad and then sort of just leveled out with life as it was. Started working for the city, the same city which "stole" my worms. Funny how things work out sometimes eh?! My first license acquired as a city employee was Class 1 Wastewater Operator. My first day as a full time employee was spent wading in the bottom of a plugged up clarifier, waist deep in the lake of death. Yes I was in shit!
Where there is a sewer treatment plant, there is always sewer sludge, commonly known today as "biosolids". My duties with the city over the years and my job performance, of which I am at least a little proud, led to my increased time and involvement with wastewater treatment. The invention of the internet and my learning to use it was a great thing to say the least and I soon learned of using worms in composting of biosolids as being an acceptable method of sludge bio-remediation by the EPA and some cities were already doing it. I ordered 20 pounds of E hortensis, European Nightcrawlers (ENC's) from an online friend and began using them to turn sewer sludge into worm castings.
There is also a seasonal wild nightcrawler native here in Arkansas, not sure of the correct taxonomy but believe it to be the same as the Georgia Jumper. Between that and the ENC's, it was not long I would estimate roughly to have had close to a million worms working rows of sludge, really just getting started good when the worst thing imaginable happened. We had what the old timers here called a "100 year flood". What worms did not drown or got carried away were no longer confined to the sludge rows but scattered over the whole property. I still see some from time to time here or there around the work place but that flood knocked the wind right out of me. There just seemed no use to even try again and just as well, we have had several floods since that one, seems yearly now that will cover the area alloted to me for worming.
A new treatment facility built in 2008 put an end for the possibility of using worms in bio-remediation anyway. Sludge is dewatered now using a cationic polymer emulsion that is toxic to some aquatic species and yes I tried, worms will not even stay in the bedding with this sludge. I applied for a government grant to purchase commercial composting equipment and do away with the dewatering polymer but was denied. So I gave up trying.
Still through it all over the years I never stopped thinking about raising worms and seem to have come full circle. I know how and can do it well. They do the work and have babies, all we have to do is keep them moist, not too hot and not too cold, give them something good to eat and they do what they do.
If I had to blame one single person, it would have to be Daniella Martin, the star and host of "Girl Meets Bug", link at the top of my list. She just has a way of making bugs look good! No way I'm going to be sqeemish about eating bugs when this woman is piling waxworms on taco shells and munching down! So I tried some packaged bugs...delicious. Led to research, here we are in the present, Gourmet Bugs is born. I'm not completely sure what I'm doing yet but I'm having fun learning haha!
I promised a prediction for the future... Those who look at this whole trend of Entomophagy over the last couple of decades here in the US, the news reports, the studies of insect nutrition, etc., couple it with the bait and pet feeder industries concerning earthworms and insects and/or their larvae/pupae then toss on the green movements and vermicomposting...well those who look, see and position themselves somewhere in the money flow are going to be among the next generation of wealthy. That is my prediction for the future.
Americans might be hard headed concerning Entomophagy but they are coming around, it's picking up steam quickly. Americans are and will always be pet fanatics and those pets need food. Americans love to go fishing and need bait. The latter two, nobody can argue and Entomophagy is likely to put a burden on the bait and pet feed industry once people finally figure out that bugs taste good!
I suppose my occupation has alot to do with my intent on farming insects like I'm set on doing. I want my bugs and the bugs I offer to anyone to be as far away from their frass (fecal matter) as possible. I do not want to eat mealworms that spent half their lives crawling around in their own frass, nor do I want to eat crickets from a stinky enclosure. I just hate shit, period! I hope to create a movement as big as Entomophagy itself and see people adopt similar practices of producing clean as possible insects. I don't care how long you cook a turd, it's still a turd!
Sure hope my idea for vermicomposting directly under insect enclosures works out. Somebody may already be doing it, would not be surprised. Good for them! Get ready, here I come! :)
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