Most of my gear is here! In addition to covering up, I took this picture on a potato, so here’s what you’re looking at:
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Right, on top of box, clear: graduated cylinders
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On top of box, metallic: scale
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On top of box, green plastic: bucket sifters
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Center, background, white plastic: trays the project will expand into
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Center, foreground, red and black: ur tct (them-crush-thursday)
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Left, on top of table, black plastic: take-out containers that currently house the project, 1/3 of which is pictured.
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Left, orange: Uncle Ben’s packets - now that’s another project for another time.
Not pictured: My records where I keep track of everything. Current rate of survival of larvae to adulthood: about 92%. Current reproduction rate: unknown, but I’m already seeing hundreds of offspring in containers that got laid in for <4 weeks; in another 2 weeks the bucket sifters and scale will help me find out more accurately.
Currently everything has cost about $450. In about a week, ur tct will be buying $250 worth of samples from several different live feed companies. If my carpentry-inclined moist Maoist friend hasn’t built me a rack by then I will go by the hardware store and cobble one together myself. I have enough room for maybe 2 or 3 of these racks in my home. In about 1 month I’ll have an idea of when I will outgrow my living space, and how much I will be producing at that time.
This post is dedicated to the first 800 very hungry caterpillars larvae, all of whom got to live a better life than they would have in the wild.
The plan is to sell them as live feed to pet shops and zoos and online to pet owners. In doing so I’ll be competing with my erstwhile employer from the past 2 years. If I can get sales going and expand into a dedicated facility, I know I can compete them into the ground. But before I do this I need to figure out how long it will take me to get a population up to 2 million. Best case scenario, 2 generations. Worst case, maybe 4 generations.
I also plan to collect kitchen scraps from restaurants and sell the insect waste to farmers and gardeners.