Here is our late, great educator Mark Phillips discussing the cochineal insect that can be found at Fossil Rim! The cochineal is native to Mexico and South America. This insect is tiny and lives on cactus 🌵 plants – usually the prickly pear cactus. Female insects eat the red cactus berries, which concentrates the color in their bodies. The use of cochineal insects as dye is actually common in the food industry, and the dye has been around for centuries. The cochineal insects are harvested in tw

Cochineals are tiny bugs that live on prickly pear cactuses. The acid in their guts makes a red dye used in textiles, cosmetics, and foods like M&Ms and Yoplait yogurt. Indigenous people across Latin America traded it for thousands of years. It can be found on the walls of archeological sites, in priceless paintings, and in the robes of kings. But today, Peru dominates the market, and Mexico’s cochineal farms are disappearing. We met a few of the country’s last farmers trying to keep the ancient