A survey to test customers´ experience and preferences regarding food insects in the Czech Republic has revealed that 37.8% of the 1,340 respondents had experienced eating insects. Although more than half of the respondents reported their experience as being positive, only 11.8% consumed insects regularly. Of those who had no experience with edible insects, 14% stated their willingness to taste insects. Regarding preferences, ground insects or insect meal were the favourite forms of consumption, regardless of the species. From a sociodemographic point of view, age and gender significantly influenced the responses; younger people and men reported more positive attitudes towards entomophagy than older people and women. Regarding eating whole insects, processed crickets, katydids and locusts were the top-rated insects. Cockroaches were the least popular choice. The majority (77.7%) of the respondents also claimed that they would not mind consuming meat products originating from livestock that were fed insects.

Nutrient contents of subadult and adult Blaptica dubia , Blaberus discoidalis and Blatta lateralis roaches, commonly used as feed source for insectivorous animals in captivity, were determined. Contents of crude protein, fat, ash, chitin, carbohydrates, calcium and phosphorus were analysed....

The nutritional quality of insects is related to many factors, including their rearing conditions. In this study, the effects of temperature on the contents of crude protein, lipids, ash, and amino acids and the body size and weight of Tenebrio molitor larvae were analysed. The larvae were reared with the occurrence of the first 20 pupae in a laboratory incubator at temperatures of 22, 25, and 28 °C. The results revealed that the weight (from 0.09 to 0.15 g), dry matter (DM) content (from 30.72 to 36.55 g/100 g), and fat concentration (from 22.46 to 36.01 g/100 g DM) of the larvae increased with increasing rearing temperature. In contrast, the crude protein content significantly decreased (from 64.33 to 54.41 g/100 g DM). Methionine was the limiting amino acid. The essential amino acid index ranged from 37% to 45%. Information about the effect of temperature on the growth and nutritional parameters of mealworms may contribute to the optimisation of mealworm-rearing technology.

Synanthropic invasive silverfish, Ctenolepisma longicaudatum, has been recently reported to cause nuisance in the indoor environment in many European countries. To get more details on the species distribution, the species occurrence was monitored by the authors in the countries where establishment of C. longicaudatum has been revealed in the last years. In Czechia, 20 findings from 14 municipalities in eight regions were recorded within the last three years. In the United Kingdom, 49 cases, including the first occurrence in Scotland, were recorded. Five cases were recorded for the Republic of Ireland. Domestic settings were the main habitat in the study countries (50.0% for the Czechia and Ireland and 36.8% for the United Kingdom). Regarding C. longicaudatum control, the standard silverfish strategy fails, and the use of insecticidal baits complemented by dust insecticides was suggested as the most promising approach. To reveal presence of C. longicaudatum in Europe, the search of literature, social platforms and databases on invasive species was conducted. According to these sources, the species is known from majority of European countries, when the high increase of records in recent decade was detected.

Our recently conducted questionnaire survey focused on the acceptance of insects by Czech respondents and revealed different preferences between the consumption of whole and ground insects. To identify whether the species and size may affect the acceptance of insects, small and large species of Blattodea, Coleoptera, and Orthoptera were assessed in their whole form and as ground meals in white bread and chocolate cookies by a panel of 16 trained panelists. The hedonic ranking test of whole fried and salted insects showed that Tenebrio molitor was the best choice. According to the paired preference test, smaller insects were preferred in the case of Orthoptera and Coleoptera, but larger cockroaches were rated better than smaller ones. The overall acceptability of insect meal in food products was higher than that of whole insects. Only bread containing Tenebrio molitor and Gryllus assimilis meals were comparable to those of the control, whereas no significant differences were detected among the cookie samples. Conclusively, it was proven that the acceptance of whole insects is influenced more by species than size, and all tested meals can be used to fortify confectionary products with no adverse effects on their liking.