Beetles used as fertilizers in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Associated Press
(24 Nov 2022) A Colombian environmental engineer has found a way to make beetle larvae transform food waste into fertilizers. (24 November) (AP/Daniel Tapia)

[Judi Lynn]

1. Hard-working Colombian beetles clean garbage, retire as pets

By Astrid SuÁrez | AP
November 22, 2022 at 11:37 a.m. EST



Colombian environmental engineer Germán Viasus Tibamoso, owner of Tierra Viva, holds a Hercules beetle in Tunja, Colombia, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. The company transforms solid, organic waste, with the help of beetle larvae’s digestive microorganisms, that transform the waste into a compost rich in nitrogen and phosphorous. Once adults, the beetles are sent to scientific labs and others to Japan where they are popular as pets. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)


TUNJA, Colombia — Three yellow-and-black beetles clung to the shirt of Germán Viasus Tibamoso, a Colombian environmental engineer who uses beetle larvae to transform food waste into fertilizers. As he encouraged them to move along, he murmured to them in Japanese — trying to get them accustomed, he said, to the sounds of their future homes.

The not-so-little bugs — which can grow up to 17 centimeters (6.5 inches) long — have a remarkably productive and complicated life among the humans who breed and collect them.

Viasus operates a company called Tierra Viva in a rural area around the city of Tunja, a city some 150 kilometers (95 miles) northwest of the Colombian capital of Bogota. An attempt as a postgraduate student to produce organic fertilizer with worms failed, Viasus said, but he found beetle larvae in the bags of earth that remained. He tried using them instead. And it worked.

Tons of food scraps collected from nearby communities are spread in concrete ditches and covered with earth. Then beetle larvae — the stage between egg and adulthood — are introduced. They chew through the refuse and their digestive microorganisms transform it into a fertilizer rich in nitrogen and phosphorous.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hard-working-colombian-beetles-clean-garbage-retire-as-pets/2022/11/22/fa45b78a-6a83-11ed-8619-0b92f0565592_story.html

[GreenWave]

2. Bikers take note. Wear helmets

impacts are very dangerous.

[Judi Lynn]

3. No kidding! Whoa....

[GreenWave]

4. En garde!

This one flies!

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[Judi Lynn]

5. Wow! Looks like it bears grudges and has a long memory, too!