Cricket / insect farming

2 posts
Wed, 08/13/2014 - 18:03 #1

Member for

10 years 3 months
angtimothy
Last seen: 03/08/2018 - 21:05
Joined: 08/12/2014 - 17:25

Cricket / insect farming

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone had experience with cricket farming in Australia. I believe it is quite cheap to start up as not much land and machinery is needed.

With the rising cost of animal feed, farming crickets or insects for feed might become a viable, healthy and maybe cheap option for animal farmers. Pet shops might want to buy crickets as well.

Are there any regulations on insect farming in Australia? 

Are there any viruses that might kill crickets in Australia at the moment?

Do farmers in Australia widely use pesticides?

Cheers

 

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Thu, 08/14/2014 - 15:51 #2
barb
Last seen: 09/17/2019 - 18:07
Joined: 11/23/2011 - 09:38

Hi Angtimothy,

Interesting concept. From TV programmes I have watched, I know that insects are eaten widely by humans throughout Asia and Africa. However, I have no experience with this myself. That is, unless you count the bar-b-qued grasshoppers I tried at a Japanese friends place years ago: not my cup of tea so to speak as they were a bit crunchy for my taste. Perhaps you may be able to breed them for human consumption as we have a large African, Middle Eastern and Asian population now in Australia.

It is illegal to feed meat meal or fish meal to livestock in Australia and perhaps insects would be in this catagory- you will need to check up on this because the regulations are strict and the penalties for breaching them harsh.

Regarding diseases of insects and specifically crickets, it may be necessary to speak to an entomoligist about that. You could enquire about it at the Qld Museum or perhaps at one of the Universities.  Talk to your local Dept. of Primary Inustries about regulations on insect farming and they can perhaps tell you who to contact regarding health regulations for marketing them- if any.

This is a great question and as far as I can recall, the first time anyone has ever asked a question like this on the forum. Perhaps one of the members may have some knowledge on the subject.

Regarding farmers using pesticides. Most do, but of course not if they are organically certified farmers.

Can you please let us all know how you go?

cheers,

Barb

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