Making Feed from Japanese Beetles

[Blue Tiger]

We are trying this again. First round we used equal amounts (on a dry weight basis) frozen beetle biomass and soybean meal. Mixing duration was 20 minutes. Pellet integrity was poor (too friable) so this round replacing soybean meal by half and its entirety with wheat flour. Already seeing differences during the mixing process which will be run for a longer duration of 30 minutes. Much more dust when replacement complete. Objective is to create pellets with materials we can acquire from most midwestern feed meals without using imported animal protein.

 

[Blue Tiger]

Oil (canola) is being used in part to suppress dust during early part of mixing phase. Beetles do not appear to be broken up as finely when soybean is reduced in its interity by wheat flour. This like inventing new breakfast cereals where milling issues and mouth feel are just as important as what product taste like and its nutritional value.

 

[Blue Tiger]

Image below depicts appearance of pelleted formulations where half (right) of soybean meal used in formulation above is replaced by wheat flour and all (left) of the soybean meal is replaced by wheat floor. Neither diet contains binding agent used in the first diet, yet pellets holding together well. Pellet integrity is improved in both formulations resulting in fewer fines that are potential waste. The diet on left appears darker with less chunky pieces where pellets would break, The coarse nature of soybean meal my need to be addressed by grinding. Fish are hammering both diets so chickens will almost certainly do same when they get the chance.

 

[Blue Tiger]

Here is same to diets and results of a sorting experiment using sieves. The fines and other smaller grades may still be of value as feed, possibly even for chicks.

Top row is the formulation where wheat flour and beetle biomass are equal.

Bottom row has same amount of beetle biomass with soybean meal and wheat flour in equal proportions

Below are weights of mixes after sorting the sieves. Presorting not pictured
Weights


Presorting*, Pellets, 0.157" to 0.0787", 0.0787" to 0.0394", < 0.0394"
Wheat Only 291.7 g, 279.4 g, 8.1 g, 3.0 g , 1.0 g
Soybean / Wheat 261.0 g, 219.5 g, 25.8 g, 10.9 g, 3.8 g

Wheat only has much less in the way of fines, roughly 1/3 as much when compared to mixture including soybean meal.

 

[Blue Tiger]

Made a major advance towards practicality with respect to processing. We took some frozen beetle biomass and simply ran it through the meat grinder. The ground "meat" was air dried at room temperature overnight. The died material was subjected to modest mortar and pestle treatment to break up clumps. Material appears as shown below. Bulk density is almost 3 times higher than for simply dried beetles and drying was much faster using lower cost approach.

I was hoping to be able to extract oil from this mess using an oil press, but not looking so good.

 

[Blue Tiger]

I need fresh beetles from which to make feed. Storing whole without dehydration may degrade nutrients in a big way. We will be indirectly testing for that this summer. In the meantime I will be setting up traps to collect new beetles that will be processed immediately after capture. Traps will be harvested daily in the evening as going home from work. Containers used to collect beetles attracted to lure will be 5-gallon buckets to control cost.


Below are vendor and items to be acquired.

http://www.greatlakesipm.com/jbtraps.html


JB Top Assembly - Yellow TR-9001 $ 10.50 each

JB Baitpack: 1 Floral Lure and 1 Sex Lure TR-9003 $ 4.25 each

 

[happyfrenchman]

This is a very interesting thread. . Disgusting. But very interesting. I am going to get one of those traps and treat it like a seasonal food source. But if you guys can preserve them, you will have done a good thing. That is a lot of potential protein. Squeezing them for oil... Mmmmm Mmmmm delicious.

 

[Blue Tiger]

The oil part is not looking good. Oil content of beetle biomass representing an entire season may not be high enough for oil press to work. Therefore we will see if timing of trapping can yield beetles with higher oil content.

 

[Blue Tiger]

Analysis concerns above realized. Must work from fresh product. Mass trapping will be next round of concern.

 

[centrarchid]

What is up now?