Hive Explorer Is the First Smart Insect Farm for Starters

It’s hardly a secret that our society’s current state of food production is completely unsustainable. We burn through resources more quickly than they can be replenished, waste tremendous amounts of food, and do lasting damage to the environment in the process. There is, of course, plenty of debate about how to address that — and uncertainty about whether people even care enough to do so. But, in the mean time, you can start recycling your food waste using mealworms and the Hive Explorer.

Hive Explorer is the “first smart insect farm for starters,” and just recently launched on Kickstarter. It’s a bit like that ant farm you had as a kid, but with an actual purpose and the intelligence to achieve that purpose. Hive Explorer is a micro-ecosystem for mealworms, which will consume just about any food and then produce fertilizer as a byproduct. That fertilizer, in turn, can be used to grow your plants and create more food, resulting in a sustainable, continuous-loop system.

Hive Explorer is a habitat for your mealworms that is designed to keep them happy and healthy, while also making it convenient to recycle your food waste into high-quality fertilizer. It has a smart controller for keeping the temperature, humidity, and airflow at the proper levels within the habitat, and a sieve to filter the fertilizer byproduct down into a collection tray. All you have to do is drop your leftover food into the Hive Explorer and gather the fertilizer later — you can even eat the mealworms if you’re particularly adventurous.

The Hive Explorer Kickstarter campaign is running until January 10th, and a single set costs $112. Rewards are expected to ship in September 2019.