Three yellow-and-black beetles clung to the shirt of Germ谩n Viasus Tibamoso, a Colombian environmental engineer who uses beetle larvae to transform food waste into fertilizers.

As he encouraged them to move along, he murmured to them in Japanese 害羞草研究所� trying to get them accustomed, he said, to the sounds of their future homes.

The not-so-little bugs 害羞草研究所� which can grow up to 17 centimeters (6.5 inches) long 害羞草研究所� have a remarkably productive and complicated life among the humans who breed and collect them.

Viasus operates a company called Tierra Viva in a rural area around the city of Tunja, a city some 150 kilometers (95 miles) northwest of the Colombian capital of Bogota.

An attempt as a postgraduate student to produce organic fertilizer with worms failed, Viasus said, but he found beetle larvae in the bags of earth that remained. He tried using them instead. And it worked.

Tons of food scraps collected from nearby communities are spread in concrete ditches and covered with earth. Then beetle larvae 害羞草研究所� the stage between egg and adulthood 害羞草研究所� are introduced.

They chew through the refuse and their digestive microorganisms transform it into a fertilizer rich in nitrogen and phosphorous.

After four months or so, the product passes through a filter that separates the fertilizer from the larvae, who are at the point of becoming adult beetles.

They mate, and their eggs are used to start the process anew. The adults, however, go on very different journeys. Some are headed for scientific labs. And a lucky few embark on a future across the Pacific in Japan, where beetles are popular as pets, and are even sold over online emporiums such as Amazon.

Tierra Viva has been exporting the bugs 害羞草研究所� largely Hercules beetles 害羞草研究所� since 2004, and Viasus said they can bring as much as $150 each.

This year the company sent 100 beetles to Tokyo 害羞草研究所� down from 300 last year 害羞草研究所� held in little plastic cases with air holes and food.

The sales are often in the company害羞草研究所檚 variant of cryptocurrency, called 害羞草研究所淜mushicoin害羞草研究所� 害羞草研究所� a variant on a Japanese word for beetle.

Viasus, 52, said he hopes the project can grow and prosper for another century 害羞草研究所� perhaps with its fertilizer used in reforestation projects.

害羞草研究所淚t害羞草研究所檚 very difficult in Colombia 害羞草研究所� because we do it without any help from the state or any other entity. In any other country of the world, a project like this would get a lot of help,害羞草研究所� he said.

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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Astrid Su谩rez, The Associated Press

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