Would you like a lifetime supply of tasty bran?
All that I require is that you break the volcel pledge enough for daily egg laying to occur
wax_worm_futures
joined 3 years ago
Yes! I was just reading a few scientific articles about the mating patterns of darkling beetles. (not a gov't employee tho)
I was reading a scientific article a few days ago about mealworms (of course), and the process by which they extract water from the air. Turns out it more than doubles their metabolic rate just to do that.
So even the biomimetics isn't going to get us very far on this one.
The kind of solution you're looking for involves moist soils with high levels of organic matter. That, and using less water for economic activity.
Without a full spectrum of their natural diet, these things have a turquoise color instead of a green one.
They still are able to go through their full life cycle just fine, they just aren't camouflaged for live foliage.
All I know about growing them is that we had a limited number of them on wet substrate in 32oz containers, and the breeding adults were fed hummingbird-style on a syrup that was boiled in-house.
You don't want these anywhere near your garden though.