Maggots for Your Pets

Through the years, some of my most crazy stupid posts here on MattChat have involved bugs.

And ladies and gentlemen, we have another.


A California company, AgriProtein, aims to provide pets and livestock with a new protein source -- freeze-dried black soldier fly maggots that grow on restaurant food waste.

Grubbets, made in California from insect larvae, are marketed as suitable for chickens, pigs, birds, fish and reptiles, the company's promotional material says.

The company's larger maggot factory in the works is designed to process 275 tons of organic waste per day, collected from restaurants in the region.

"The processing of such large amounts of organic matter using our process has never been done before and is no mean feat," Ester Bortot, the company spokeswoman, said in an email.

Wasp-resembling black soldier flies are native to North America, and in their winged stage do not feed, so they don't spread disease like houseflies do, entomologists say.

In a maggot factory setting, female flies lay about 500 eggs on a hatch medium -- sometimes corrugated cardboard -- near the food source for their infant grubs.

Within days of being born, larvae munch through organic waste, growing 200 times bigger over a few days. When they reach the pupa stage, they are harvested and freeze dried, or processed for oil that can be used for biofuels.


Interested?  Read the rest here:
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/05/12/California-maggot-farm-offers-new-pet-food-raised-on-restaurant-waste/6171588971951/


Can you only imagine what this "maggot factory" smells like?   Uggggh!  Oh my goodness!

I'll take 2 respirators please.


Grace & Peace & Love to you all -

Matt