Wax moth caterpillars are capable of destroying plastic bags. Sensation! Wax moth larvae can recycle plastic

The danger is not the wax moth itself (popularly - shashel), but its larvae. They are able to survive from a hive of bees, and the beekeeper will lose a whole family. Butterflies live in hives and lay their eggs there. Control methods can be divided into those that are used to destroy the pest on the frames in the hive and those that include the fight against wax moth in storage.

Characteristics of fire

The butterfly does not have a mouth apparatus, it does not eat bee products, but the larvae are able to destroy everything that is in the hive:

• pergu;
• pollen;
• Propolis;
• Mother's milk.

These creatures are unique in that they are able to process wax, which no one else can do except them. Under natural conditions, only strong bees can fight the wax moth on their own, the weak ones simply leave the occupied nest and look for another home.

In the apiary, the fight against shashel is one of the main concerns of the beekeeper. To make it easier to deal with the pest, its primary task is to maintain the health of the bee family, and then you don’t have to think about how to get rid of the wax moth and its larvae on the frames.

Night butterflies of the moth family are the most dangerous insects for bees.

A large wax moth is larger than a small one, its wingspan reaches 35 mm. The moth is inconspicuous in appearance. Like all night butterflies, it is dim. The coloration of the wings is dominated by brownish and gray colors. The lower wings are lighter than the upper ones. The adult lives off the reserves it accumulated as a larva.

Lifespan varies from 2 weeks for females to 3 weeks for males. In one clutch, the female can lay up to 300 eggs.

High fecundity endangers the entire life of the bees.

1. After 10 days, larvae will appear from the eggs, and then caterpillars, and the question of how to urgently get rid of the wax moth on the frames will become more than relevant.
2. With enhanced nutrition, the larvae grow rapidly, and in the caterpillar stage, the insect reaches a length of up to 35 mm.
3. A month later, the caterpillar pupates, but first it forms a cocoon.
4. After 10 days, new butterflies will appear, which after 2 weeks are ready to bring offspring.

For the season with favorable weather conditions can be replaced by 3 generations of wax moth.

Preventive measures

The problem is easier to prevent, so everyone who has connected his life with bees should take preventive measures to keep losses to a minimum. These methods include:

For the purpose of prevention, plants are planted on the territory of the apiary and around it, the smell of which repels moths. These include:

• Mint and lemon balm;
• Pelargonium;
• Sagebrush;
• Marigold.

To prevent the butterfly from getting into the hive, beekeepers place bowls with a mixture of bee bread and honey next to it. This should be done in the evening, when the bees no longer fly. The moth is nocturnal and in the morning it will be possible to collect butterflies drowned in honey. Yeast is added to the moth bait, it is noticed that the effectiveness of such a mixture is higher.

Attracts a butterfly and the smell of vinegar. It must be diluted in water and also put a container next to the hive.

So that the larvae from the infected hive do not crawl into a clean one, some beekeepers arrange a water barrier: they dig the hive in which the larvae hatched around the perimeter, make a groove and fill it with water.

Honeycombs need to be systematically checked for the presence of a pest. When detected, action is taken immediately. Bees must freely penetrate into any corner of the hive, so they can fight intruders.

The worker bee itself is able to neutralize the pest, it simply eats it. When a pupa is found, it seals it with propolis, and the pupa dies. Guard bees are responsible for penetrating the enemy hive, they certainly know how to get rid of the presence of wax moth on the frames - they simply do not let the larva into the hive.

The presence of wax in the apiary attracts moths, so you should avoid storing supplies in the same place where the bees live. To prevent the transfer of larvae from one body with dry land to another when storing them in a column, you need to lay a film or oilcloth on the cover of each, and even better - newspapers (the moth cannot stand the smell of printing ink).

Ways to protect against wax moth

Control methods can be divided into:

• Chemical;
• Mechanical;
• Biological.

biological method

It involves the use of plants whose smell repels moths.

Leaves showed themselves well in the fight against wax moth walnut. In early autumn, they are collected and dried. Dried hops can be added to the walnut leaf. The frames are poured with this mixture and stored in this form in the winter.

Another proven remedy for combating wax moths in the cell storage is mint. Cover the bottom of the box with stems and leaves, tightly set frames in it, on top of which lay another layer of mint. Good cell protection Bay leaf, laid out below and above the frames.

If there are already larvae in the hive, a peppermint solution is used against them. For bees, it is absolutely harmless, and for a pest it is destructive. To prepare the solution, you will need peppermint tincture and water in a ratio of approximately 1: 2. This solution is poured into a small amount between the frames at night. In the morning, a “harvest” of larvae is harvested, from which a medicinal extract known as is prepared.

mechanical way

It consists in shaking out the larvae from the honeycombs. To do this, you need to get the frame and knock on it. Vibration makes pests leave nooks and crannies. They fall out of the honeycomb, and the beekeeper can only collect them.

The fight against wax moth in a cell store is to ensure good ventilation and temperature. Many beekeepers hang honeycombs for the winter in the attic or in a specially designated room with an additional window for ventilation.

Improvised and special chemicals

Salt has a detrimental effect on wax moth larvae; it does not pose a danger to bees. Before being sent for storage, the combs are sprayed strong mortar salt, in fact - brine. After drying, a white salt layer forms on the frames and honeycombs, which protects the dry land from moths. In the spring, this layer will need to be washed off by the same spraying, but not with a solution, but with clean water.

The frames are stored in a cell storage and in a tightly closed case. In this case, vinegar essence will help from shashel:

1. A container with 4 - 5 spoons of essence is placed at the bottom of the hive.
2. From above, the frames are covered with polyethylene so that the acetic vapors do not come out as long as possible.
3. At the same time, it is very important to close the entrances tightly so that the butterflies do not get inside when the vinegar vapors still evaporate.

When using essence, two goals are achieved:

• The larvae die
• The hive is disinfected, and this is the prevention of bee diseases.

If the framed wire is made of a material that rusts, this method cannot be used.

There are also special means to fight larvae, as well as adult insects. StopMol plates are hung between the frames in the cases. The smell disappears over time, so periodically you have to check if the mole has wound up, and if necessary, change the plates.

The best and effective way how to get rid of the presence of wax moth larvae on the frames is based on their thermophilicity. In the cold they die.

Some beekeepers specifically for freezing sushi acquire chest freezer. It fits a lot of frames at the same time. In the absence of a chest or a large freezer, honeycombs are frozen out in stages:

1. Remove frames in one case.
2. Put them in the refrigerator.
3. After a couple of days, they start processing another case.

Conscientious beekeepers do not recommend fumigating a hive with sulfur, as this can adversely affect the quality of honey.

In nature, their neighborhood is more like a symbiosis: the moth does not damage the main hive, but settles on old combs, making room for new construction. In apiaries, the wax moth is one of the main enemies, it is able to force the bees to leave the housing, literally flooding it.

Behind one name are 2 closely related species of insects - a small and a large wax moth. It is rather difficult to distinguish them: both are gray or yellowish, with similar habits and nutrition. A large wax moth is quite large - up to 3.5 cm in wingspan, very prolific and voracious, capable of not only eating out the walls of the honeycombs, but also making holes through their bottoms. Small wax moth reaches 2.5 cm, causes damage only on one side of the comb and reproduces at a slower rate.

Stages of development

Firefly - an insect with full cycle development, this means that each individual goes through several stages: a larva hatches from an egg, after a while it turns into a chrysalis, and then into a sexually mature insect - a butterfly.

Butterflies are unable to eat oral apparatus atrophied. The life expectancy of the female is less than 2 weeks, the male is about a month. All this time they exist due to the substances accumulated in the larval stage. Their goal is to mate, find appropriate place and lay eggs. The moth prefers to settle in a hive with weak bee colonies, in waste thrown out from apiaries, in storages with wax raw materials.

With the onset of twilight and the end of the flight of the bees, moths make their way into their homes and lay batches of eggs on the bottom, walls, in the cracks between the frames, less often in the cells of the honeycombs. The eggs are very small, literally fractions of a millimeter, and their number is huge - from several hundred to a couple of thousand over the entire lifetime. After about a week, light-colored larvae with a brown head hatch from them.

At first, the caterpillars eat honey and bee bread, and then they switch to wax and the remains of cocoons. To stock up enough nutrients, they absorb food without stopping, literally destroying the honeycomb.

After a month of active destruction of the hive, wax moth larvae look for a secluded place and move on to the next stage - they pupate. The pupae are quite large - 1.5 - 2.5 cm, arranged in groups. At the beginning of development, they are light beige, then darken to brown-brown. At a comfortable temperature for them, about 30 ° C, butterflies fly out in a week. If the hive is colder, the development of pupae can be extended up to a month.

moth detection

Bee moth larvae, emerging from the eggs of one butterfly, can destroy up to 30 kg of wax raw materials, so it is very important to detect them in time.

To identify the wax moth in the apiary, yeast, honey and bee bread are added to the water, the solution is poured into bowls and placed near the hives at night. The smell attracts butterflies, they climb into the water and drown.

If there are few larvae in the hive or they are still small, they can be detected by the long tangled web left in the corners with small dark pieces inside. These are the excrement of the wax moth. You can find the larvae in the combs by lightly tapping on the slats of the frames, the vibration of the caterpillars falls out of their shelters.

Survival in difficult conditions

In addition to high fecundity, the excellent adaptability of its larvae to the life of its larvae helps to capture new territories of the bee moth:

1. Caterpillars of the bee moth, in case of a shortage of honey and wax, feed on any beehive debris, gnaw wooden frames, fabric, insulation, polyethylene, the feces of their fellows and even engage in cannibalism.
2. Moving around the hive, they make a whole network of intersecting tunnels in the wax. It is almost impossible to get pests out of them without causing additional damage.
3. To protect themselves from bees, the larva wraps its passages in the combs with a silky thread in the form of a stocking and moves inside them.
4. When the temperature drops to 8°C, they do not die, but stop developing, fall into suspended animation, and in this state wait for warming.

The wax moth butterfly has the most sensitive hearing organs of all the previously studied inhabitants of our planet. It is able to sense sound frequencies up to 300 kHz. For comparison, a person hears sounds up to 22 kHz, dolphins - 160 kHz. Scientists suggest that this feature helps moths to protect themselves from bats, as well as find a mate at a considerable distance and detect bee hives.

Damage

Strong bee families quite successfully resist the wax moth, they do not let butterflies inside, they watch the entrance all day, seal them with propolis, kill only the hatched larvae. Frequent raids of this pest distract bees from making honey, slow down the process of their reproduction, and reduce the amount of bee products produced.

The larvae in the hive also cause significant damage:

• damage the brood by gnawing at the pupae;
• excrement of wax moth larvae and the web they produce stick to the body of bees and disrupt molting;
• leaking honey pollutes the hive;
• highly bred pests smell unpleasant and the bee tends to leave its home.

Especially severe harm wax moth inflicts on a bee family until its death in a warm climate, at high temperatures its development is faster and 2-3 generations have time to change in a year.

Medicinal properties of moth

Traditional medicine ascribes a lot of useful properties to bee moth larvae: unique enzymes that help the insect digest wax can also cope with a number of microorganisms inside a person.

Tinctures, elixirs, extracts are prepared from caterpillars and accompanied by a whole list of indications: from colds to heart disease and tuberculosis.

The moth can also be grown outside the hive. To control development, the larvae are kept in transparent containers filled with beekeeping waste. Caterpillars collected during the most active period are used before the start of preparation for pupation.

Breeding wax moth for cooking medicines occurs in separate rooms with high temperature. As a rule, they do this at home in apiaries to get additional income or in small firms manufacturing biological additives to food.

Preparations from larvae do not have proven effectiveness; no studies confirming the unusual properties of moths have been conducted. official medicine does not use such means. Moreover, scientists argue that the claimed miraculous enzyme is not familiar to science, and even if it existed, it would simply be digested into gastrointestinal tract patient without reaching the goal.

And yet the wax moth brings benefits. Its larvae are used instead of small mammals for scientific experiments in the field of toxicology, genetics, the study of immunity. Large larvae that are easy to raise make an excellent food for poultry and exotic animals. In European countries, their sale in frozen form has been established precisely for these purposes.

A butterfly called the large wax moth (Galleria mellonella) is notorious among beekeepers: its caterpillars live in bee hives, feed on honey, bee bread and wax, literally eating honeycombs and at the same time damaging bee brood.

But the wax moth also has an extremely useful property: Researchers from Cambridge and the Cantabrian Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology found that G. mellonella caterpillars eat plastic bags. It turned out by chance: Federica Bertocchini, one of the co-authors of an article in Current Biology, cleaned her hives from moth caterpillars, putting them in a plastic bag - and after a while the whole bag was literally riddled with holes. No one but the caterpillars could do them.
Then they were already specially planted on polyethylene material in order to understand how hard they destroy it. The result exceeded all expectations: one hundred caterpillars of a large wax moth destroyed 92 mg of polyethylene in 12 hours. According to the authors of the work, insects work in this sense even more efficiently than special bacteria that can destroy plastics.

Breaking down polyethylene, G. mellonella caterpillars turn it into ethylene glycol - a colorless and odorless substance, sweetish in taste and poisonous; however, the caterpillars, apparently, did not suffer from it in any way. It is curious that not only the caterpillars destroyed the polyethylene: the chrysalis, which simply lay on the polyethylene, soon made a hole in it; apparently, the decomposing enzyme was simply escaping through her integuments. An experiment with pupae, by the way, showed that insects really break down polyethylene, and not just gnaw holes in it. The chemical structure of polyethylene is similar to that of beeswax, so it might be expected that the wax moth larvae feeding on the wax in the hives would be able to overcome this artificial polymer as well.
The challenge now for researchers is to understand what enzyme—or set of enzymes—allows G. mellonella caterpillars and pupae to break down polyethylene, and what exactly is happening there chemically. It is possible that insects themselves synthesize the necessary enzymes, but it is possible that some symbiotic gastrointestinal bacteria help them to break down polymers. Here it is worth recalling that polyethylene, in which everything and everything is now packed, in Europe makes up 40% of all plastics, and 38% of all plastic that can be found in landfills. It is extremely stable, decomposes for a very long time (different types of polyethylene decompose naturally over a period of one hundred to four hundred years), so it is understandable why the huge polyethylene mass is a serious environmental problem. And it is possible that this problem can be solved just with the help of a large wax moth.

Moth larvae are the very pests that spoil clothes, “shear” furs and leave ugly bald spots on almost any natural textile. Butterfly moths cannot spoil clothes: they do not have a developed mouth apparatus at all, and they throughout their entire adult life don't eat at all. However, it is butterflies that lay eggs, from which offspring are quickly hatched. And each moth larva is, one might say, a few more holes in woolen clothes or a bald spot on fur.

It is interesting

It is a myth that female moths do not have wings. They are all winged, although their organs for flight are slightly smaller than those of males. Another thing is that the females practically do not use the wings, and the butterflies flying around the room, indeed, are exclusively males.

The larva of a domestic moth can spoil not only clothes. There are hundreds of species of moths capable of living and reproducing in a human dwelling, and each of them has its own food specialization. Domestic moth larvae can eat fur and fabrics, flour, cereals, dried fruits, bread, nuts, pet food - almost any organic product.

But at the same time, the moth larvae in the photographs and live all look the same, and only the experienced eye of a professional entomologist can tell the difference between the moth caterpillars different types.

Appearance and characteristics of moth larvae

Live and in the photo, moth larvae are small white or with a slight yellow tint caterpillars. Whatever species the moth belongs to, its larvae have powerful gnawing jaws and a well-defined Brown head. The photo below shows a larva of a clothes moth:

In most species of moth, the larvae look like small worms, but this comparison is not entirely correct - real worms do not have limbs, and the moth caterpillar, like any other insect, has six pairs of tiny legs.

It is interesting

There are more individual muscles in the body of a moth caterpillar than in a human body. This allows the pest to actively move and feed efficiently.

The larva of the food moth looks almost the same as the larva of the clothes moth. However, the caterpillar of a clothes pest will never feed on flour or cereals, and vice versa: for example, several species of moth butterflies are called, the caterpillars of which are not able to feed on textiles. The photo below shows what the larvae of the barn food moth, a well-known food pest, look like:

For clothes, furniture, carpet and fur coat moths, it is characteristic that their larvae make a cover for themselves - a small cocoon of their own silk-like substance and the remains of damaged tissues, which the caterpillar puts on itself and with which it moves on long distances. And in the furniture moth, the larva even makes a whole house for itself in the form of a tunnel of silk, food debris and excrement:

Similar cocoons are created by food moth larvae. In the photo - flour spoiled by fire. Lumps are visible, which are cocoons covered with flour:

On a note

From the larva of the kozheed, the larva of the carpet or furniture moth differs very well. Any skin beetle larva is covered with long hairs and usually has dark color skin covers. Next, the photo shows the larva of the kozheed, and below - the larva carpet moth. In addition, the skin beetle larvae are well distinguished by their “temperament”: they are very mobile and crawl quickly.

Growth and lifestyle of larvae

The terms of development of larvae of different species are different and depend not only on the biology of the species, but also on the conditions of their habitat. Optimum temperature for the development of larvae of clothes and furniture moths is 23-25 ​​° C. Under these conditions, the development of a moth larva in a fur coat lasts about 90 days, and the total cycle from egg to egg lasts up to six months.

It is interesting

At a temperature of about 30 ° C, the larva of the clothes moth, with normal nutrition, has time to develop in two months, and at a temperature of 13 ° C, it will take about 190 days.

At temperatures below 13°C and above 30°C, clothes moth eggs do not develop, and the larvae die. Approximately in the same temperature intervals, a food moth larva can develop, but its growth is much faster due to the greater nutritional value of food. When enough high temperature the barn moth larva pupates within a month after leaving the egg. During its development, the moth caterpillar experiences 4 molts. Therefore, it is customary for entomologists to talk about five instars of the larva. In the photo below - a moth caterpillar of the last age:

Moth larvae are inactive and rarely move long distances. Females lay their eggs either on the food itself for their offspring, or in close proximity to it, and after hatching, the only thing left for the larvae to do is to eat food and grow. At the same time, the youngest larvae can crawl away to a sufficiently large distance from the place of hatching.

It is interesting

Fur moth larvae are typical pests. Many of them, moving along the fur, simply gnaw the hairs, but do not eat them, and as a result leave noticeable tracks on fur clothes.

The photo below shows a larva with a case and an adult clothes moth butterfly on a piece of cloth.

Larvae of almost all moth species try to avoid illuminated surfaces. Only in some moths the caterpillars get out of their feeding places to pupate in the open. The moth larvae on the ceiling are precisely the moth caterpillars. In the photo below - moth larvae in croup:

Feeding moth caterpillars

The larvae of different types of moths can eat a huge range of foods. In nature, these insects feed on the hair of mammals and bird feathers in their nests, can develop on the skins of dead animals, and infect crops, fruits, nuts, berries and vegetables.

At the same time, most of the butterflies of this group do not differ in narrow specialization. The larvae of each species of moth can feed on almost any food, and the same can easily switch from cotton to wool and vice versa. In the photo - holes in the sweater, which were left by the larvae of the domestic moth:

Moreover, there are cases when moth larvae spoiled even semi-synthetic garments.

Moth larvae as the main pests of clothing

Clothes, furniture upholstery, carpets are quite convenient food for moth larvae. If the materials are made of natural fabric, whether woolen or cotton, the stomach of any larva will digest it. In addition, the oldest things are preferable for caterpillars, since the fabric and pile on them are more easily gnawed by the jaws of the caterpillar. Each caterpillar is able to eat quite a bit of tissue. For example, minor damage to carpets may not be visible externally. But due enough a large number larvae in each brood, they almost simultaneously leave several lesions that are already clearly visible.

And the garments themselves, on which a characteristic hole appeared, are no longer considered wearable. The moth spreads between houses and apartments, usually by the person himself. These butterflies are not able to fly long distances, and the owner of the apartment usually brings larvae to the house on purchased clothes, and already these larvae give rise to a new micropopulation. This is especially true for second-hand clothes and old carpets from relatives on which carpet moth larvae travel. Food moth larvae, respectively, "travel" along with food.

Fighting moth larvae in the house

Fighting moth larvae is quite difficult, although there is nothing particularly tricky about it. The larvae of clothes and furniture moths can be easily removed by treating clothes, furniture and carpets with special insecticidal aerosols. After that, things are washed, and the furniture is thoroughly wiped with a damp cloth.

Pest larvae usually weakly adhere to clothes, and therefore, when shaking it out, they mostly fall on the floor. They will die when things are heated in the sun at temperatures above 35 ° C. In the optimal case, moth larvae should be removed by operations in the following sequence:

1. Shaking out thoroughly all the clothes.
2. Warming clothes in the sun or washing them in washing machine at a temperature of more than 50 ° C - it is most effective to kill moth larvae with temperature
3. Having treated clothes and cabinets with aerosol insecticides (Antimol, Armol, Raptor from moths, etc.)
4. Only after the complete destruction of moths, use repellents - sections from moths, essential oils, fumigators.

Fighting food moths is more difficult. It is absolutely impossible to destroy food moth larvae with insecticides (the poison will get into the products), you can only:

1. Throw away all products that contain larvae.
2. Destroy mechanically (slipper or fly swatter) flying butterflies.
3. Treat cabinets and bedside tables with aerosol insecticides.
4. Buy in the future products in such quantities that are eaten in a week.

An effective way to prevent moths from entering an apartment is to wash new things and carefully check the food you buy. They have not yet learned how to deal with moth larvae differently because of their versatility and ability to live even on extremely meager rations. However, these methods will already be enough to protect your home from harmful butterflies and their caterpillars. It is important to remember that the moth is not only a pest. Even its caterpillars, a person has learned to use for his own good. For example, the burdock moth larva is an excellent bait for winter fishing, the wax moth caterpillar is an almost ideal live food for exotic frogs kept in terrariums, and the tincture of it is known as a remedy for tuberculosis and stroke.

And in general, in nature, moths are a necessary participant in many biocenoses, and therefore it is impossible to consider moths as totally harmful, and it should be destroyed only if it poses a danger to the sanitary condition of the dwelling.

An interesting video: the transformation of a moth larva into a butterfly (accelerated shooting)

Tons of feathers from poultry farms are disposed of annually. However, thanks to the protein they contain, they can become a valuable food product, according to biotechnologists from Lund University in Sweden. They figured out how to turn waste from poultry farms into a source useful substances. The method is described in a press release on site university.

“If we continue to deplete the Earth's resources and fill it with garbage in the way we do today, we will need 1.6 planets to survive. But we only have Earth. So we have to find new smart and creative ways to reuse waste,” says Professor Rajni Hatti-Kaul.

Hatti-Kaul found on one of the poultry farms a strain of bacteria that can process the protein contained in feathers (feathers, like hair, nails, scales, beaks and hooves, consist mainly of keratin) into amino acids absorbed by the body. Together with colleagues, she improved the strain, making processing as efficient as possible.

Thus, microorganisms will not only help to cope with excess garbage, but turn it into useful product nutrition.

“If you get to the amino acids that are formed during the breakdown of proteins, they can be effectively used in animal feed or even human food,” Hatti-Kaul told the Swedish channel. SVT .

“In animal feed, feathers can replace fishmeal and soy protein,” explains researcher Muhammad Ibrahim.

The advantage of this approach is that it does not require the use of any chemicals, which will positively affect both the environment and the cost of the product. From a kilogram of feathers, you can get up to 900 grams of protein.

Microorganisms can process almost any waste from poultry farms and slaughterhouses, including fish scales, but the researchers decided to focus on feathers first.

The process of making food from feathers is extremely simple. They must be placed in a container with saline solution and bacteria. In order for microorganisms to multiply, a certain temperature and acidity must also be maintained. After some time, the bacteria will turn the contents of the container into a nutrient solution.

So far, the researchers plan to make animal food out of feathers, but in the future, they may also be in our dishes.

“In the future, we will all face a shortage of protein, and there is already a lot of talk about getting it from insects,” explains Hatti-Kaul. “So feathers could be an important source of protein for humans. However, we will start with animal feed.”

Earlier this year, scientists already urged people to pay attention to alternative sources protein - for example, instead of meat. According to their calculations, products from crickets and flour beetle larvae will not only provide sufficient protein, but also significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions due to the reduction in agricultural land.

Replacing half of the world's meat consumption would reduce the area of ​​agricultural land by a third.

Soy products, such as tofu, are also great for this purpose, as they require much less land and energy to produce. But synthetic meat is still less profitable in terms of resource costs than, for example, raising chickens - its production requires the same amount of space when high costs energy.

Not everyone will have an appetite for the sight of fried worms and crickets. Specialists from the VTT Technical Research Center in Finland tackled this problem by creating powdered food ingredients from crickets and mealworms. Their structure and taste are quite suitable for making meatballs or falafel.

The dry fractionation method used by VTT makes it possible to produce powders from insects with different tastes and different coarseness of grinding:

if finer, the powder will contain small pieces of chitin and have a pronounced taste of meat, if coarser, the taste will be softer, and the pieces of chitin will be larger.

Fat is removed from insects before processing. Thus, the final product contains up to 80% protein. The powder was tested as a substitute for 5-18% of meatball and falafel ingredients. Even a small addition of insect powder to falafel tripled its protein content.

Deal with pollution environment insects will help. This spring, scientists are about caterpillars that can feed on plastic and devour it at an unprecedented rate.

A hundred larvae of the large wax moth, the enemy of European beekeepers, were able to gobble up 92 mg of polyethylene in 12 hours.

The discovery was made by accident. One of the researchers, who is fond of beekeeping, cleaned the hives from moth larvae that feed on wax. She collected the caterpillars in a bag, but they quickly got out of it and crawled around the room. Further analysis revealed that even the cocoons that caterpillars form are able to degrade polyethylene when contracted with it.

The digestion of wax and plastic involves the destruction of the same chemical bonds in the body of insects, the researchers explain. Wax is a polymer chemical structure which resembles the structure of polyethylene.