Location: Biological Control of Pests Research
Project Number: 6066-30400-003-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Nov 2, 2025
End Date: Nov 1, 2030
Objective:
Objective 1: Explore new uses of industrialized insects and develop new technologies for cost effective insect mass production.
Sub-objective 1.A: Develop, refine, and evaluate diets for Tenebrio molitor and Acheta domesticus using agricultural and industrial by-products.
Sub-objective 1.B: Select and characterize improved Tenebrio molitor lines with shorter development time, larger size, faster growth rate, and higher fecundity.
Objective 2: Explore new applications for insect protein as ingredients in animal feed, organic fertilizers, mycotoxin remediation, and for developing more efficient artificial diets for biological control agents.
Sub-objective 2.A: Evaluate the inclusion of powders from industrialized insect species on artificial diet formulations for Coleomegilla maculata.
Sub-objective 2.B: Using plant secondary metabolites to improve the fitness, predation capacity, and residence time of predators and as environmentally friendly insecticides.
Approach:
In this project we propose insect mass production as a solution for multiple agricultural problems including production of biological pest control agents, production of protein for animal feed, production of organic fertilizers, and biodegradation of agricultural by products and waste. The yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor), the house cricket (Acheta domesticus), and the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) have become increasingly important as industrialized insects in the United States. The value of these three species as replacement for fish meal in animal feed has become increasingly appreciated as new positive research results have become available. Similarly, the availability of industrialized insects has provided new ingredients for development of artificial diets for insect predators and parasitoids. Traditionally insect artificial diet development has aimed to produce formulations devoid of insect components due to the high costs of producing additional insect species. With commercially available insect powders the development of diets for biocontrol agents has gained new possibilities. Insect production or insect farming is sustainable because of its low input requirements of water and space and its low greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, insects can consume low-value agricultural by-products and insect waste (frass) can be used as organic fertilizer. However, production costs are still high due to the primitive state of insect mass production technology, the cost of diets, and the lack of improved stock lines. The goal of this project is to explore the use of agricultural by-products such as sugarcane bagasse and cotton gin litter in mealworm and cricket diets and to use selection to breed improved mealworm lines with faster development, larger size and higher fecundity. Also, the powder of multiple industrialized insect species will be tested as ingredients in artificial diets for predatory insects such as lady beetles used as biological control agents of aphids and spider mites.
Nutrient intake data obtained by self-selection studies (Morales-Ramos et al. 2020a, 2020b) will be used to formulate diets using agricultural by-products and supplements. Reported nutritional content data of agricultural by-products including rice bran (whole and defatted), corn DDGS (dry distilled grain and solubles), canola meal, sunflower meal, oat hulls, sugarcane bagasse, cotton litter, and supplements including wheat bran, dry potato, brewer’s yeast, and corn meal will be inputted to the nutrient matrix. The nutrient matrix operation (Morales-Ramos et al. 2014, 2023) will be used to obtain diet formulations as exemplified by Morales-Ramos et al. (2020a, b) with adequate macro nutrient ratios based on the self-selection studies. Multiple diets (at least 7 different) will be formulated in this way using different by-product and supplemental ingredients. Subsequently, a diet refining process will follow consisting of modifying the most successful diets from the previous experiment by switching ingredients of similar characteristics among diet formulations.