Anyone here interested in trying this? I have an ongoing research project where we are making feeds where a big part of the ingredients is beetle biomass. We have a mass collection method that works and are developing a work around relating to storages problems with the biomass. I am doing this to work with hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of beetle biomass.

Effort here is working mostly with bluegill and likely black bass (Largemouth, Spotted and Smallmouth) that are legal for me to culture. I have been posting on process with a chicken site and gotten a lot of interest there.

Jim, I don't know about using beetle parts in feed, but I tried feeding my BG whole live Japanese Beetles last summer, and they didn't like them much. Grasshoppers and crickets were much preferred over the beetles.

Mine eat them live OK. Grinding them up is a game changer.

My fish love them alive. BG, HBG, PS and YP all go after them when I toss them in.

From a growth, nutrition and/or cost perspective, does the beetle chow have an advantage over a good pellet currently on the market?

I'm all ears on how to attract, grow, or culture beetles as a food source.

Also how do we grind up Japanese Beetles and more importantly how do you trap them? I guess if it was easy no one would have a Jap Beetle problem?

I also saw a link on a bluegill site where someone shared how awesome the catalpa worm can be for bait when fishing for panfish.

Since caterpillars can be a blight (tent worms for example) and probably can reproduce as fast as beetles, maybe there is a way to grow catalpa worms on a large scale indoors?

First look into mass trapping method a co-worker developed (see link below). Intent was to protect high value crops, but beetle trap rate was so high that finding use for biomass became an issue. Composting and incineration are low to no return approaches.


https://ipm.missouri.edu/IPCM/2018/1/mass_trapping_japanese_beetles/

And how did you find a way to effectively and easily grind up hundreds of pounds of beetles?

I did not answer that for a reason as need more time for a PC approach. To be straightforward, grinding may not need be a discrete step from making the pellets. Do you have the ability to make sausage?

yup, but no ability to make pellets

I would also have to have a way to source J Beetle pheromones and 'floral scent'

Meat grinders I have been using produce strings like with hamburger, then you break them off as they come out and place whole mess on a surface with good airflow. As mess dries the strings break readily into pellets. They even float.

This site is challenging me when it comes to pictures and videos so I will be a little slow describing procedure with those but will get it done.

Pheromones are the same you buy at Lowes or other lawn and garden outlets.

See link for dummy run at this.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/making-feed-from-japanese-beetles.1223688/

Currently, I am trying streamline process to reduce ingredients and other special needs (equipment).

Jim, I am not sure what you are asking when you say..."Anyone here interested in trying this?"

If you are asking if I want to process your beetles? I'm going to say "No". But, I do plan on making a couple floating beetle traps to help my pond take on the nuisance Japanese beetles as a food source this year.

If you are asking if I would feed my soon to be stocked fish the beetle pellets? I'm up for that, so "Yes".

IF you are asking if I am willing to eat the beetle pellets myself? Then I have to say "NO WAY"...lol

Firstly, the pellets do not taste all that bad once dried. They taste a bit like dried krill which I do like. Secondly, the pelletized beetles can be stored for use well beyond the plague season.

Jim,

What do you need from us? I assume you want to track some metrics. Do want this to be the exclusive feed?

I kinda like the idea of a version of the sock trap that drops the live critters into the pond instead of capturing them. Perhaps with secondary pheromone "flavors" for June bugs or other seasonal pests.

Wonder if a cheap solar yard light in the center of a baffle with a sock going into the water would capture many insects and deliver them to the fish?

Those commercial beetle traps are like a big yellow sock and fill up almost daily in a good year for beetles. When I lived in town, a next door neighbor had a couple of traps in his garden, and they would get heavy with beetles. Bad stink too if he didn't empty them almost daily. One could probably be configured to empty into the water somehow.

Fish feeder beetle trap discussion...

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=18641

Traps I use provide catch rate the fish cannot keep up with.

That sounds impossible, given a big enough bluegill population.

Jim,

You may find this really old thread useful. Black Soldier Fly Project

Ken

The larger traps we use appear to be surrounded by a swarm of green bees all day long with beetles falling into container as they come in. The container can fill with beetles in about 2 days. Container volume is 35 gallons. Compare that to a feed sack volume. Then consider how many days it takes you to feed out a sack of feed in a typical pond stocked with Bluegill. Then consider same thing happening with 8 traps forming a perimeter on a 1-acre plot.

I imagine 35 gallons of beetles, dried and pelletized, would make about one gallon of pellets. The BG in my nearly 3 yr old 1/4 acre pond could eat that many pellets in two days.

Bump....

A little kid will fill up on popcorn but that doesn't mean it is nutritious. Are Japanese beetles good for the fish?

CC,

I fished with catalpa worms a lot as a kid. They are awesome bait but I think you need catalpa trees.

I have a few trees and currently am growing some more in my window sill in the 4 season room to plant in June.

If you(or anybody else) want some northern Catalpa seeds, send me a PM. I would be happy to send you some.

Bill D.

Still working on that. Moisture content just over 50%. Chitin content is part that needs to be parsed out from protein which I think will still be at least 2/3 (protein) of the dry weight. Hand cranked oil press does not get much oil out so will run through a larger commercial type to see if more oil can be separated out.

This summer a growth trial will be ran with Bluegill to see how they grow. Must conquer milling problem first. My gut feeling is the pelleted version will out perform popcorn.

Our local catalpa trees only have worms on them every few years. There are about six big catalpas in our neighborhood. Two or three trees had worms year before last. No worms at all last year.

I have had some years where Catalpa Worms can be harvested by the 5-gallon bucket full, but takes too much work. Harvest of that critter is also very irregular with some years giving almost nothing. The little parasitoid wasp has a hand in that.

You are starting to worry us a little Jim.

Jim,

How many pounds of beetles do you think you could come up with?

I might know a guy who could turn those into some r&d feeds.

Dustin

I have a couple hundred pounds in freezers and will likely use all of that trying to work out a milling procedure.

If like last year, then thousands of pounds will be harvested although we lack storage capacity to keep that much in storage. Bulk density and drying are challenges we will be working on in the coming weeks. Our harvesting is not industrial scale.

I have funding to do the research now.

Maybe "toasting" them might be a better procedure than freezing. Farmers dry wet corn in propane fired dryers. Why not "dry" the bugs?

Where could one get the top for the trap? We had a bad infestation on our crepe myrtles last year. I would be interested in making a floating trap on the pond, where the trapped beetles would drop into the water.

I am familiar with the dryers as we used them for drying corn. We have been considering using one already. Killing the beetles first I think really needed as corn kernels do not crawl or fly out during the drying process.

John you read my mind.

I had bad infestattions of Japanese beetles for two years in my blueberry field. I trapped them and every evening would feed them to my fish. EVERYONE came to dinner, BG,HBG,RES,LMB,CC even grass carp. Then after two bad years, they just dissappeared. Have only seen a couple JB this year. They would hammer these bugs. Can't imagine fish not eating them but I guess every pond is different.

that was the first thing that came to my mind too,, I took the regular traps with the bags on them and cut the bottom of the bag off and taped it to the top of a 4ft section of PVC pipe with a pipe cap on the bottom with a few small holes drilled in it for rain drainage, worked like a million dollars, filled up that 4ft stick of pipe with them. that was in my yard tho, but I see no reason why a person couldn't mount that whole thing over a floating innertube or something that would let them drop right out the bottom into the water.
That being said, we have not got anywhere near the infestation we had a couple yrs ago, maybe it was a drier summer.

We treated the entire yard with the milky spore, and now have 1/1000 of the number we used to have. Also, our "lawn" isn't very pretty as far as being all grass. Its not. That also helps. I like the idea of the floating bug trap though!

We have a terrible Gypsy Moth infestation this year, and it looks to be worse next year. They do have phermone traps for the males which doesn't do much for the population, but it may be another way to direct a little protein to the fish.

Now when I check the Japanese beetles into our garden pond, the two little bass in there will bite at them sometimes, but they are not big fans of them. Usually the frogs get them first. The moths don't even touch the water. The bass get them about 4 inches out. Crazy little fish!

Here's a good read on the floating trap...

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=37762&Number=492292#Post492292

It did not work well for me as the fish loss interest for some reason. The JB we practically non-existent this year in my neck of the woods.

I'm wondering if JB numbers are cyclical like the cicadas. We were buried in the things for the last couple or three years and so far this year we've hardly had any.

They must be cyclical. We have very few Japanese beetles this year, and the crape myrtles are blooming well. The past two or maybe three years, the JB ate the buds off mostly before they bloomed, and damaged the garden some too.

When the JB were most numerous, I would catch maybe a couple hundred and throw them into the pond. The BG didn't go for them nearly as well as they go for grasshoppers.