Spend enough time trawling the Internet and you’ll come across something you wish you hadn’t. There are corners of the web that are unusual and disturbing… and it seems the team at Vice has discovered something that lands firmly in the middle of those two descriptors.
Apparently, there’s a large community of people who are making serious cash online by raising insects and selling them in bulk.
Credit: 20th Century
Referencing a subreddit dedicated to side hustles, Vice reports that there are people raking in thousands of dollars a month by dealing in this, well… business.
“If you do this you’re basically the garbage man of the reptile trade,” the lead post reads.
“This is something that needs to be done, but it’s not the fun part so nobody cares to do it. It pays really really well and the barrier to entry is less than $50 for almost any bug you pick.”
This means sourcing, breeding and raising cockroaches; crickets; mealworms; or any other kind of creepy-crawly that can feed a bird or lizard.
So, yeah. It’s pretty disgusting. But if you’re not easily grossed out by bugs, and you have some available space for a few colonies of cockroaches (*dry-retch*) in your home, you could be increasing your earnings by a good chunk.
Reptiles do eat a lot of insects…
Credit: Columbia Pictures
One user reported earning $900 a month doing this, and shared that they were gearing up to turn bug farming (I made that term up) into their full-time job.
Admittedly, this does sound like the least work-intensive option in the entire side hustle thread. Other options included things like woodworking and teaching – both of which sound way more tiring than throwing a few bugs in a container.
Maybe these guys are onto something?