An OverviewOur Group is faced with the task to build a habitat and raise insects for consumption. Insects are a good source of protein and have a very small environmental footprint compared to larger animals such as cows for the production of beef. Through research and the help of last fall's project "Insects for a Sustainable Future", we have decided that mealworms are the most cost effective and simplest insect to raise for consumption. We will start to raise mealworms in our homes, then discover different methods of cooking and preparing the insects for human consumption.
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For our project, we are comparing different cooking methods in relation to accessibility of ingredients, appliances, cooking time, and how appetizing.
The purpose of the design matrix is to determine which cooking method will be most effective in the target community. The way we are accessing these factors is based on a scale from 1-10. Ten being the most applicable to each cooking style. We are then placing a weight on each criteria based on the importance of this factor for each community. Based on our design matrix, the cooking method that should be the most effective is to stir-fry the mealworms. |
Our team decided to go with a simpler design, since we will only be producing mealworms for two months, there is no need for such a large scale operation. Instead we just replicated what one modular container in the above facility was comprised of. Our enclosure is made up of a small clear storage bin with a lid and standard household screen mesh. the only alterations we made was cutting a rectangle out of the lid and glueing the screen on it to allow full airflow for the insects. We built two identical enclosures incase some mealworms started transitioning into their next form in their life cycle as beetles.
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As the mealworms began to eat and grow they soon started to transform into pupas (left). We were surprised to see them start mutating after only a few weeks since it normally takes months for them to get to this stage in their life cycle. This happened because we had originally purchased them from a local pet store and we have no idea of knowing how long they were at the store before we bought them. This led to some complications later on because the majority of our mealworms were either pupas or beetles by the time it came for us to make food with them
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On the far left our finished enclosure is ready for bedding, feed, and mealworms. We went with the simplest and most accessible bedding, oats. Oats double as a bedding for the worms to live and move around in as well as food for them to eat. Then we headed down to the local pet store and bought 600 mealworms to start our farm. In the middle picture we placed an inch and a half layer of oats to the container and added in the mealworms to complete our enclosure.
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On the left you can see a high definition picture of each stage in a mealworms life. It was cool watching the worms malt their skins and slowly transform into pupas. Soon after, dark beetles began emerging and living among the worms and pupas in the container. We initially planned to separate pupas and beetles from the worms to allow the rest to multiply, but we decided to keep them all in the same container to simplify the farming process, keeping it as one modular unit. This way when the beetles matured and started laying eggs they would hatch in the same container and the process would start all over again.
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