Soldier Fly Larvae illegal, raised on human waste?

[FrostRanger]

I admit, I was not reassured by post #13.
They did not say that insects are not grown on human waste, but that:





So, "treatment" and "inspections" is the answer we are supposed to accept as final, safe, and reassuring.

Like a lot of people, I don't drink tap water. It's been treated, sure. I'm sure that works some of the time. But does it work all of the time? How do you know when you fill up a glass that some trace of sewage hasn't gotten through?
As gross as all that is... the urine concerns me almost as much. I've yet to hear of a filter material that can remove every pharmaceutical administered to humans.
In that case, distillation would be the only surefire method.

A lot of bottled water really isn't any better than tap water. In some cases it basically is just bottled tap water. Info about how safe your water is locally can be found fairly easily as they have to make that public. You can also have your water tested yourself if you're worried

 

[Evadig]

TL;DR - "Too Long; Didn't Read"

Sorry, just jumping in to say thank you for explaining what this means…it’s been bugging me for years!

I’m afraid to look things up because I don’t know if it end up being “bad” or not .

I’ll be going now!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

As gross as all that is... the urine concerns me almost as much. I've yet to hear of a filter material that can remove every pharmaceutical administered to humans.
In that case, distillation would be the only surefire method.

There isn't one.

When "big Sugar" wanted to demonstrate that they weren't solely responsible for the nitrogen run off leading to red tides in the south eastern Gulf of Mexico, they decided best way to trace other sources was...

to look for birth control hormones leaching into the water, having escaped the 10s of thousands of out of date, poorly maintained, and simply abandoned septic tanks in use in that part of the state.

Keep in mind that a septic tank is usually 5-7' in height an typically buried 1-3' underground. So the bottom of the tank is anywhere from 6-10' below ground level.

That area of the state varies between 6 and 20' above mean sea level...

 

[SourRoses]

A lot of bottled water really isn't any better than tap water. In some cases it basically is just bottled tap water. Info about how safe your water is locally can be found fairly easily as they have to make that public. You can also have your water tested yourself if you're worried

True, that's why I only buy spring water. Zephryhills Florida spring water is the best tasting on the market.

Although Stormcrows post makes me worry, lol.

There isn't one.

When "big Sugar" wanted to demonstrate that they weren't solely responsible for the nitrogen run off leading to red tides in the south eastern Gulf of Mexico, they decided best way to trace other sources was...

to look for birth control hormones leaching into the water, having escaped the 10s of thousands of out of date, poorly maintained, and simply abandoned septic tanks in use in that part of the state.

Keep in mind that a septic tank is usually 5-7' in height an typically buried 1-3' underground. So the bottom of the tank is anywhere from 6-10' below ground level.

That area of the state varies between 6 and 20' above mean sea level...
View attachment 3948178

This is interesting because I follow the Brevard lagoon restoration project on FB. They often talk about the septic tank issue, but one thing they haven't addressed keeps coming up in the comments and that's how they can tell the difference with effluent discharges from city sewage and various industrial waste flows.
At least the latter part of the question is answered by your post.

Back to the insect farming, I find it curious that the result is not that sewage sludge is not used... but that they claim it's treated and tested first. The testing must be rather limited, chemically, in order for the product to pass?
Thankfully, I don't even feed my birds bagged bug products. Although I have thought about farming some insects. Sorry to hear you struggled with these FL temps, Storm. Actually, I was more interested in red wiggler type worms that could pull double duty in the garden as well. But I'm not sure where they stand nutritionally.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Once upon a time (more than three decades ago) I worked for an environmental engineering firm that had a lab which tested municiple waste streams. The short answer is, if you see it on your annual city water quality report, we tested for it in the treated waste as well. ...and could have testted for much more, though there was little interest in it.

What the standards were 35-ish years ago, I honestly don't remember. I was in the lab a couple times as a helper when others had called out, but that wasn't my primary (or secondary) role at the firm.

and lest we all forget, it used to be popular to buy bags of milorganite at the big box to improve your garden.

(( from https://www.milorganite.com/ ))
Milorganite® is composed of heat-dried microbes that have digested the organic material in wastewater. It's manufactured by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, which captures waste water from the metropolitan Milwaukee area and uses naturally occurring microbes to digest the nutrients. After the organic matter has been consumed, the cleaned water is returned to Lake Michigan and the resulting material is dried and marketed as Milorganite®.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

In other threads, there are people who say the more we are exposed to dirt and germs, the more robust our immune systems become. Maybe feeding our chickens worms fed on sewage would be a good thing! (Don't shoot me.)

 

[SourRoses]

In other threads, there are people who say the more we are exposed to dirt and germs, the more robust our immune systems become. Maybe feeding our chickens worms fed on sewage would be a good thing! (Don't shoot me.)

I'm not going to shoot you, lol.
But I am going to ask (rhetorically), are you going to purposefully undercook chicken to strengthen your immune system?
Your common sense won't let you, and there's a good reason why.
There are many pathogens the body struggles to build immunity to. Like Salmonella. Even if you've gotten sick with it before, one bite of undercooked chicken could send you to the toilet for days.
Immunology is a complex science I won't pretend to know enough about. But I do know that foregoing sanitation is not a viable option.
And we are already exposed to more than we know. I read a study during covid with scientists trying to track the spread from aerosolized spray on the beaches (with sewage piped to the ocean, and the force of the waves bringing it back towards land and blasting infectious particles into the air).


The larger issue with sewage is the sheer unpredictability of it.
We're not just talking about Ecoli from poo.
It's everything that person was exposed to.
From pathogens and parasites, to medications and drugs. To the toilet bowl cleaner and whatever else they flushed.
It's what your mechanic washes off his hands after working on cars, and what some industrial manufacturers are allowed to discharge into municipal wastewater.

In wastewater treatment, it's considered "clean" when it falls within a certain tolerance limit. The same way a bag of rice is only allowed to contain up to x amount of insect parts.

Long, long ago, maybe the middle ages? People realized that growing food in their own waste was a bad idea.
Other creatures waste is not such an issue. Like livestock manure on the garden. But same-species waste increases the chance of cyclical transmission.

Oh, and someone in this thread commented on the chance of parasites surviving the bug drying process. Well, parasites are designed to survive a whole lot. Some stages of their lifecycle have hardy coverings as defenses that prevent moisture loss and chemical penetration.

 

[NewcoopNewpoop]

This post just reminded me of something. I have a friend who hunted some corporate farm down in florida and he told me he saw the large sewer pipes that ran through the fields and were dumping human waste into them.
This was for food intended for human consumption. And then i remembered--isnt this part of the reason why there are recalls on lettuce and etc?

Unless you farm your own food you might be shocked to find whats in the store bought stuff that goes straight into your mouth.

 

[NewcoopNewpoop]

I'm not going to shoot you, lol.
But I am going to ask (rhetorically), are you going to purposefully undercook chicken to strengthen your immune system?
Your common sense won't let you, and there's a good reason why.
There are many pathogens the body struggles to build immunity to. Like Salmonella. Even if you've gotten sick with it before, one bite of undercooked chicken could send you to the toilet for days.
Immunology is a complex science I won't pretend to know enough about. But I do know that foregoing sanitation is not a viable option.
And we are already exposed to more than we know. I read a study during covid with scientists trying to track the spread from aerosolized spray on the beaches (with sewage piped to the ocean, and the force of the waves bringing it back towards land and blasting infectious particles into the air).


The larger issue with sewage is the sheer unpredictability of it.
We're not just talking about Ecoli from poo.
It's everything that person was exposed to.
From pathogens and parasites, to medications and drugs. To the toilet bowl cleaner and whatever else they flushed.
It's what your mechanic washes off his hands after working on cars, and what some industrial manufacturers are allowed to discharge into municipal wastewater.

In wastewater treatment, it's considered "clean" when it falls within a certain tolerance limit. The same way a bag of rice is only allowed to contain up to x amount of insect parts.

Long, long ago, maybe the middle ages? People realized that growing food in their own waste was a bad idea.
Other creatures waste is not such an issue. Like livestock manure on the garden. But same-species waste increases the chance of cyclical transmission.

Oh, and someone in this thread commented on the chance of parasites surviving the bug drying process. Well, parasites are designed to survive a whole lot. Some stages of their lifecycle have hardy coverings as defenses that prevent moisture loss and chemical penetration.

Also, this reminded me that drinking water normally contains estrogens from bc pills and etc. You can research your local treatment plant to get their current test results. Big shocker is even though they "pass inspection" they can still have levels of contaminants many times higher than is biologically considered safe.
We only use water filtered with a Berkey for this reason. PCBs and PFOS (which i think is even in rainwater) and 99.9% of any contaminants are removed with it. Now flouride (a neurotoxin?) on the other hand, you have to buy a seperate filter for.

 

[Bawkbok]

I reread post #13 again - FLYGRUBS is only one brand - there are meal worms in many other brands found everywhere, TSC, WalMart, local feed stores, which is where I've purchased them. I doubt all manufacturers follow as strict rules as FLYGRUBS. Have never seen them on any shelf - they are only mail order. They also use various farmers but tout they are GMO free. That would mean they have to buy their product from non GMO certified farmers. Just because something says FDA approved - sorry - but that doesn't impress me either. I've just decided to grow / hatch my own mealworms and to stop feeding the freeze dried. It's all personal choices. My girls have actually picked up a mealworm out of my hand and spit it out. That tells me something.