ABSTRACT
Many entomologists share the belief that their interest, experiences, and skills in rearing insects in laboratory colonies can be the foundation for a profitable, private business. However, very few commercial insectaries operate on the assumption that adequate financial income can be derived from the sale of insects. An insect-rearing specialist establishing a new commercial insectary must consider many of the essentials critical to any new business. Some of the more important basics are interdependent and include the following factors. These include: time, space and equipment, utilities, and capital. Insect rearing as a business is capable of producing many marketable products; namely, numbers of living or dead insects, their body parts, or insect by-products from laboratory culture. The private commercial insectary has a certain degree of competition in selling insects for insecticide research. Any commercial insectary owner must consider potential problems that could jeopardize steady, predictable business.
