Cricket Farming on Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe

[SludgeMunkey]

For those of you that can watch this show: (It's on Discovery Channel in the USA)

{copy of e-mail I received from Clay Ghann of Ghann's Cricket Farm}

Well, the long awaited news has arrived......

The Discovery Channel's popular TV Series Dirty Jobs starring Mike Rowe will be featuring Ghann's Crickets (Ghann's Cricket Farm :: Ghann's - Live Crickets, Mealworms, Superworms) in the main segment on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 9:00p ET! The following Tuesday (Jan 19, 2010) our mealworm operation will be featured in a smaller segment following the main episode which again starts at 9:00p ET.

The series producers contacted us in December 2008 after one of our customers apparently told them our company would make an interesting feature. After a couple months of discussion we agreed to let them shoot. After several months of preparation the episode was filmed in June 2009 at our facility here in Augusta, GA. Dave Barsky, On-site Producer, came in the day before the shoot to scout our facilities in preparation for filming. On the day of the shoot, Mike & crew arrived at 8:00a and hit the ground running, or... er... hopping!

It was a LOT of fun - truly an experience we will never forget! Mike Rowe is just as you see him on TV - easy going, witty, funny... just a "regular guy". And oh yeah!... not afraid to get Dirty! After a full day of shooting that didn't wrap up until nearly 9:00p that night, we treated Mike & his crew to a little post-shoot party - cricket style! (chicken wings, cold beverages, a few good friends... and oh yeah!... some chocolate covered crickets!). Mike & crew finally rolled out a little after 11:00p that night, but the memories they left behind will be with us forever.

So, if you're interested in seeing how a few hundred million crickets a year are produced, packaged and sold - not to mention over a hundred tons of cricketpoo (yes, it's just what you're thinking... it's an excellent organic fertilizer - check out CricketPoo! :: Organic Plant Food), tune in to see Ghann's Crickets on Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel, Tuesday Jan 12, at 9:00p ET (and Ghann's Mealworms the following Tuesday, Jan 19 in a smaller segment following the main episode).

If you like it, shoot us an email afterwards to djfeedback@ghann.com & let us know what you think!

Until then, as Mike likes to say... "Keep it dirty!"

 

[SludgeMunkey]

For those that may have missed it: here is a link to a good portion of this show on the Discovery Channel website.

Dirty Jobs: Cricket Farmer : Videos : Discovery Channel

 

[merk199]

It is worth watching...I enjoyed it.

 

[John]

I enjoyed it too.

 

[Daniel]

Really worth watching, very interesting stuff!

 

[SludgeMunkey]

Next week's episode will have the mealworm portion of their operation as part of the show. And thanks to Discovery Channel, the main cricket episode is already on re-runs!

 

[fishkeeper]

Very neat thanks for the heads up!

Not too sure if you guys would be good to field the questions but here goes.

I'd imagine their major expenses would be peat moss, food, and those neat cardboard things which seem to be made just for them?

When I tried breeding crickets a major problem was males and others hopping onto the pans and eating the eggs. A wire screen over the laying tray solves that. Perhaps they feed theirs well enough losses like that are minimal?

I bet their are some million or so crickets loose on that farm on any given time...and probably 2x that on the day Mike came to work....haha sorry Mike.