Meal Lice

Meal Lice is a raw food resource in Oxygen Not Included obtained from wild or farmed critters and encountered as a basic organic food ingredient. It appears in the game as a low-quality, high-mass foodstuff that can be fed directly to Duplicants or processed into preserved dishes. Meal Lice occupies the same role as early-game edible biomass: cheap to acquire but inferior in quality and caloric efficiency compared to many later food sources.

Meal Lice can be processed in two primary ways. In a Microbe Musher it is compacted with water into Liceloaf: combining 1,200 kcal worth of Meal Lice with 50 kg of water produces a Liceloaf that supplies +1,700 kcal, has quality 0, and a shelf life of 4 cycles. In an Electric Grill Meal Lice can be turned into Pickled Meal by cooking 1,800 kcal worth of Meal Lice to produce +1,800 kcal, quality -1, and a shelf life of 32 cycles. Pickled Meal is vinegar-preserved and lasts far longer than Liceloaf, but Cooked Pickled Meal has negative quality. Because converting Meal Lice into Liceloaf uses a lot of water and yields fewer additional calories and lower quality than processing other ingredients (for example, producing Gristle Berry with the same water), Meal Lice is often more efficient to eat raw or to preserve as Pickled Meal rather than using water-heavy musher recipes.

Meal Lice has a couple of niche uses beyond direct feeding. Feeding Meal Lice to Dreckos increases the chance of producing Glossy Drecko eggs, making it useful when breeding for rare variants. As a raw commodity it stacks and is consumed according to standard food mechanics; a Duplicant requires 1,000 kcal per day by default, so Meal Lice’s caloric values should be managed alongside other food sources to avoid waste.

Practical notes and tips:

• Liceloaf made in the Microbe Musher converts 1,200 kcal of Meal Lice + 50 kg water into a dense loaf of +1,700 kcal but only lasts 4 cycles, so use quickly or avoid water use if water is scarce.
• Pickled Meal from the Electric Grill yields +1,800 kcal and a 32-cycle shelf life, making it the preferred preserved form when storage longevity is important despite its -1 quality.
• Because musher conversion produces fewer additional calories per unit of water compared with alternative recipes, preserve scarce water by feeding Meal Lice raw or pickling it rather than making Liceloaf.
• Use Meal Lice as ranch feed to influence breeding outcomes (notably increasing Glossy Drecko egg chance).
• Manage storage and consumption timing: Liceloaf’s short shelf life and the lower quality of cooked products mean Meal Lice is best used as a stopgap food during early bases or as specialized feed for animal breeding.