Essentially, bug manure. The goal for Mr. Mendoza and his collaborators was to investigate whether frass and the bugs that created it might someday help astronauts grow food and manage waste on Mars.

These tiny bugs can consume almost any type of organic ... soil—like the smart soil that can grow crops with less water—frass could be a good opportunity to improve how farmers work their ...

By Sabrina Imbler Insects excrete, just as we do, but their feces have a more pleasing name: frass. Unlike us, insects molt as they grow up, producing a series of crinkly silhouettes of their ...

Insect poop — also known as "frass" — contains all the regular nutrients you'd expect from a good manure, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and just a tiny bit of it goes a long ...