Bayer, Billings Looking to Turn Lobster Shells into Pest Repellent, Press Herald Reports

The Portland Press Herald reported a group called Lobster Unlimited LLC is developing a product that transforms ground lobster shells into an organic pelletized soil amendment to fend off pests for use by large commercial agricultural growers and golf courses. The initiative grew from a collaboration between Bob Bayer, executive director of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine; Cathy Billings, associate director of the Lobster Institute; UMaine senior Matthew Hodgkin; New York entrepreneur Stewart Hardison; North Carolina engineering consultant Ron Reed; and Mark Elizer, president of a Florida company that creates organic fertilizer for golf courses. “We’d like to see it trickle down to the fishermen, to bring more value to their landings,” Billings said. “If more demand is created for these other components of the lobster, and these byproducts become valuable, they could be more or as valuable as the meat and a huge boon to everyone in the industry.”