Design, Operation, and Control of Insect-Rearing Systems: Science, Technology, and Infrastructure

Design, Operation, and Control of Insect-Rearing Systems: Science, Technology, and Infrastructure explains the fundamental components of insect rearing:

1) the rearing systems, per se

2) personnel

3) education of rearing personnel

4) communication of procedures

5) an in-depth look at silkworm rearing

5) facilities where rearing is conducted, and

6) funding for all these components.

Insect rearing serves a wide array of purposes, including research, pest control by sterile insect technique and biological control, production of insects as food for other animals, conservation, education, and even far-reaching technology where insects are used to produce products such as pharmaceutical materials and strong, multipurpose textiles.

This book surveys and analyzes insect rearing from a scientific and technology-based approach. At its foundation, this approach assumes that rearing systems are complex interactions of components that can be understood and controlled by using a mechanistic approach. Author Allen Carson Cohen explains the infrastructure of rearing systems, their current status and character, and what kind of changes can be made to improve the field of insect rearing. Two Appendices republish out-of-print monographs that provide fascinating historical context to the development of the insect-rearing systems we have today.

Allen Carson Cohen completed his high school education in Chicago, Illinois and went to university in California for a BA and MA in English and a teaching credential. He later returned to college for an MA in biology, specializing in the physiological ecology of rattlesnakes. He completed his PhD in entomology at the University of California, Riverside (1978). He has served for seven years as editor for insect diets, insect rearing, and insect feeding biology for the Journal of Insect Science and serves as a mentor for students, researchers, and professionals in diet and rearing science and technology. He holds six U.S. patents, has published more than 125 refereed papers, and has received several technology transfer awards for his work on insect diets. He is currently research professor and coordinator of the Insect Rearing Education and Research Program at North Carolina State University, where he teaches online and in-person courses on insect rearing and conducts research on developing and improving insect rearing systems.