They're slimy, stinky and disgusting. They're also profitable.
Maggots.Zillions of 'em.
And they're raised right here in Arizona, home of ARBICO, the world's largest maggot farm.
From their 10-acre spread at the foot of the Catalina Mountains near Tucson, ARBICO's bug wranglers ship 50 million "beneficial" insects a week to about 65,000 customers in the United States and 10 foreign countries.
Packaged under the name "Delectables," ARBICO's maggots come in two flavors: crunchy or creamy, depending on whether you prefer your fly larvae dead or alive.
Maggots are the favorite food of ARBICO's most popular product, teensy fly-killing wasps that sell like hot cakes to horse tracks, cattle yards and other fly-infested spots around the world.
And the tiny, whitish worms are a tasty treat for a variety of other critters, such as fish, birds, monkeys and other bugs.
ARBICO packages and ships mag-gots by the hundreds of thousands daily. Pet stores and other retailers peddle them for about $12 for a package of 50,000. (Think about it: 50,000 maggots would make a Christmas gift that that special someone on your list would never forget.)
In addition to growing and selling bugs for consumption by those inclined to consume maggots, the company markets "beneficial" insects: natural predators of pests like aphids and whiteflies.
ARBICO, short for Arizona Biological Control Inc., was founded 18 years ago by the husband and wife team of Rick Frey and Sheri Herrera de Frey, who hope to move farmers and others away from relying too much on chemical pesticides.
With interest high in environmental issues, business is booming. In two years, the corporation's customer base has doubled, the Freys said, and their small bug-eat-bug business has evolved into an insect empire with sales of over $1 million a year.
"At the base of what we're doing is educating and re-educating people that insects are a good part of life," Rick said. "We were raised to believe that any good insect is a dead insect."
The couple met at the University of Arizona in biology lab. He was the instructor.
"We started talking bugs the first year of marriage," he said.
Rick is quick to give credit to his wife, whom he calls a visionary. Fortunately, she was a business major, too.
Although a number of companies grow and sell maggots and other insects, none has succeeded like ARBICO, which is now the world's largest producer and distributor of beneficial bugs.
Aggressive marketing and a knack for solving bug problems have propelled the business, Frey said.
ARBICO prides itself on growing high-quality maggots and bugs that keep customers coming back for more.
But don't ask what they feed the maggots. It's a family secret. Rick will say only, "Protein."
Employees grow the larvae, which reek with an ammonialike odor, in large trays in the "fly room," filled with millions of buzzing flies. The flies lay eggs in the trays where the maggots grow by the hundreds of thousands. In a few days, they are ready to be cooked or packaged live.
About 200 biological-control products are offered by the company, including habitat plants that prevent good insects from straying from home.