As a dye, the female cochineal insect is harvested, killed and sun or oven dried. The insects are small, so it takes roughly 70,000 insects to make a pound of dye. But the dye is commercially ...

That bright red comes from something else called carmine. Oh, and it's made from squashed bugs. Squashed female cochineal bugs, to be specific. They're tick-sized critters native to Mesoamerica ...

4. Place the remainder of the water in the “rinse” cup. 5. Arrange the bowl and spoon (or mortar and pestle), paper, paintbrushes, and dried cochineal bugs near the cups. Crush the bug into a fine ...

What color results? The extracted dye from the female cochineal bugs is used to color foods, makeup, and clothing. Cochineal dye is great because it can be used to get various colors when mixed with ...

The extract of cochineal tends to come up a lot. The cochineal bugs—a species of scale insect—are a centuries-old colorant. In the 19th century, chemists figured out how to make a synthetic ...

But today, Peru dominates the market, and Mexico’s cochineal farms are disappearing. More from Big Business Cochineals are tiny bugs that live on prickly pear cactuses. The acid in their guts ...

That bright red comes from something else called carmine. Oh, and it's made from squashed bugs. Squashed female cochineal bugs, to be specific. They're tick-sized critters native to Mesoamerica ...