Production of Crickets

Edible insects represent a significant part of the diet of many humans worldwide, for example in several countries of Africa, South America, Asia and Oceania. However, only a small number of insect species are reared on a large scale for food and feed. Europe is emerging as the fastest growing market for edible insects, with projected sales of over 1 billion Euros by 2022. The demand for Orthoptera (the order of insects that comprises, among others, grasshoppers and crickets) is expected to grow even faster due to the high demand for cricket-based products such as protein powder, cereal bars, crackers or biscuits. According to European regulations and standards, insects are to be considered as livestock. Therefore, the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), currently in force for other types of animal husbandry, should be applied. However, due to the specificities of insect rearing, these concepts need to be revised and adapted. As potentially successful solutions to the challenge of producing edible insects often are a matter of empirical estimations, fundamental research is needed to develop facilities, procedures, and techniques used to rear insects economically efficient.

Therefore, this project aims at optimizing the rearing conditions of crickets (Acheta domesticus) as an alternative food source in lab-scale production systems pursuing the development of sustainable insect rearing processes.

The way of achieving ideal rearing conditions represents a key challenge in order to induce optimal development and low mortality of the crickets. Abiotic factors (e. g. temperature, humidity, hours of light per day, light intensity, wavelength) directly affect the life cycle of crickets. Hence, the aim of the project is to optimize already known parameters and to identify additional potential influencing factors on the rearing and resulting chararacteristics of the crickets produced on a laboratory scale.

Consequently, the project identifies and optimizes abiotic parameters increasing the final yield of A. domesticus reared in a lab-scale system. Therefore, specifically designed containers are set up in climate chambers in a controlled environment. In several rearing cycles, combinations of abiotic factors and technological treatments - including the application of LED and UV light - are tested for synchronizing mating and hatching of the animals. Reducing the human-insect-interactions required to separate earlier and later instar by synchronized life cycles, decreases the induced stress by human intervention, and, in turn, reducing mortality in artificial rearing systems.

For designing and producing modular rearing boxes for urban insect cultivation, innovative polymer-based composite materials will be tested and selected, taking into account specific demands for the bio-economic rearing of crickets in pilot-scale.

As a complementary measure, effects on quality, nutritional aspects of the crickets produced and microbial aspects regarding the proper hygienic design of the rearing boxes will be investigated to identify most promising combinations of rearing parameters for a bioeconomic production of high-quality, highly nutritious and safe cricket-based food products.

Text: S. Bußler, ATB