Making Feed from Japanese Beetles

[centrarchid]

We have been drying using a laboratory convection oven. Clearly a forced air would be better. Shortly will try using a drying rack with convection provided by a fan in a 10 x 14 room. Humidity is not the only problem with this, intact exoskeleton also an issue. We are about to beat that issue. I need to be able to dry hundreds if not thousands of pounds at a time. Looking into small grain dryers like used for corn.

 

[HoopyFrood]

We have been drying using a laboratory convection oven. Clearly a forced air would be better. Shortly will try using a drying rack with convection provided by a fan in a 10 x 14 room. Humidity is not the only problem with this, intact exoskeleton also an issue. We are about to beat that issue. I need to be able to dry hundreds if not thousands of pounds at a time. Looking into small grain dryers like used for corn.

I didn't think about the exoskeleton - makes perfect sense. If you have a large-scale dehydrating facility, do you think a single roller mill step could be added just as they were transferred from the freezer to the dehydrator? Gapped just thinner than the beetles are tall, if they were frozen they should break apart without disintegrating.

Obviously the big challenges are 1.) getting a roller setup large enough to process them in the volume you need and 2.) milling will create heat so how do you prevent them from thawing? I'd think for the latter problem, provided they were cold enough in the freezer, you wouldn't have a problem though it might require milling in "waves." Continuously milling will just build up heat.

I suppose a third challenge is no one would have build a mill like that for commercial purposes, so it would have to be a DIY solution. The driving roller would need to be textured in a way to grip/move beetles without tearing them apart. Perhaps something like a vacuum cleaner beater bar?

Regardless!! I'll be very excited to hear how your experiments progress! Again, on behalf of all who grow things in North America, thank you for taking on the JB challenge!

 

[Tbird84]

Well, I know what we're doing this summer. Lol.

 

[JedJackson]

These little buddies of many in the midwestern US do not need much of an introduction other than not much good can be said about them if you are interested in horticulture.

I am gearing up for an experiment that might be of interest to some. We spend a lot of effort trying to keep Japanese Beetles off blueberry and elderberry crops resulting in the capture of many hundreds of pounds of beetles. Catching them in mass is easy once you figure out how to trap them. We froze them in mass. Now we are experimenting in ways to make feed from them. First round involved simply feeding them out. Fish and chickens really like them but they are too bulky for storage and rot quickly. Second round involved running frozen beetles through a meat grinder. Fish and birds hammered them even better and the ground beetles could be stored in a much tighter space. The moisture is the problem preventing more economical long-term storage. We playing around now with drying the beetles out in a convection oven which is going to greatly improve shelf life. We preparing about 20 lbs of dried beetles for feeding out to fish and some will be sidelined to chickens. That going chickens will be mixed into a scratch to seriously increase protein levels. Should make the mix look pretty. Most the dried product will be subjected to milling to see how it compares to wet frozen product.

View attachment 1275704 View attachment 1275707

Care must be taken to control smells. We have already been run out of one building. After drying I think smells will be OK for most.

What a fantastic project. It would be great if you found a way to convert them into feed because otherwise they would just go to waste. And who knows, you might start a trend that could make a dent in the JB population and maybe lead to less pesticide in the environment. Best of luck!

 

[RonP]

For years I have been actively trying to encourage insects inside my chicken run.

I have a Japanese beetle commercial trap, with sex pheromone and a floral scent, installed on a PVC pipe that extends above the run. The beetles slide, fly, drop, or crawl down the pipe where there is a hole at shoulder height to a chicken.

Works well midsummer. I actually wish there were more beetles...

 

[centrarchid]

Below is a rushed sequence of first effort to make pellets. The beetles represent about 1/2 of the mass on a dry weight basis. As shown they were simply frozen which does not smell bad like the batches we are drying. After drying it makes me think of Christmas cookies but others repelled. Formulation used more for fish (Bluegill) but should do fine as a scratch component. We added vitamins just to be safe. Amount made is roughly 2 pounds of pellets. We had to see how the beetles performed in the mixing process which differenced markedly from finer ground materials. Fish eat the stuff now but it will be dried overnight for chickens. Must be dried for long-term storage. This round is using a drying rack with a fan providing air movement. Humidity high in feed mixing room.


INGREDIENTS

MiXER

MIXING PROCESS

LOADING MEAT GRINDER TO SEE YOU IT BEHAVES AS A FUNCTION OF RATE

GRINDER OUTPUT WE THINK IS REALISTIC, SMELL NOT TOO BAD

DRYING RACK WITH 6 TIERS, ONLY ONE IN USE

BASE FORMULATION

BASE FORMULATION WITH A LITTLE GELATIN

Looks like what a skunk leaves behind after working on the front of a beehive.

 

[lilmillefleur]

@centrarchid
We have to try that out! Keep us updated.

 

[centrarchid]

Pellets drying well.

 

[centrarchid]

We did a little handling trial and fed some to fish. Fish say dried product is still palatable. To my nose the pellets smell downright pleasant. Pellet integrity is not what I prefer as pellets break generating fines quickly. In a scratch mix that likely to to be a issue as the birds readily consume small items with the large.

Gelatin as used helped integrity only a little. Other ingredients will be explored as binders. My preference is to keep carbohydrates low, regardless as to what type of animal will eat the pellets.

 

[Dayrel]

So, you are primarily testing on fish? Are you also testing with chickens?