Insects as food. Delivery is still there: where did the palm weevil come from in Abkhazia. Weevil control with chemicals
The red palm weevil (lat. Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) destroys date palms like locust crops.
An adult red weevil reaches 2.5 cm. It has an elongated rostrum, from which it got its name. Usually rusty red with dark spots. The life span does not exceed four months. Each female lays 350 eggs about three to four times a year.
Red palm weevil larva
Red palm weevil larva 
Red palm weevil larva in a cocoon
An adult weevil hatched from a cocoon
Spanish biologists sounded the alarm because of the antics of a foreign beetle. The red weevil entered Catalonia from Polynesia in 2005 and managed to gnaw 2821 palm trees. Without date palms, Mexicans are also afraid to remain.
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The problems of Spanish environmentalists have weighed heavily on the budget of Catalonia. Back in 2007, experts warned the authorities about the appearance of a malicious pest on the peninsula - the red weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus. It feeds on the core of palm trees and in a few years managed to destroy 2821 trees in Catalonia. Politicians have calculated that it costs €500 to destroy (most often burn) a single beetle-infested palm tree, but some trees cost up to €10,000 due to their root systems and surroundings.
Ecologists are afraid that because of the beetle the Canary date palm may simply disappear from the Western Mediterranean, writes the Catalan edition of El Periodico.
The first case of weevil infection was registered in July 2005. Spanish scientists are sure that their pest comes from Southeast Asia and the islands of Polynesia.
Earlier, panic over this beetle erupted in the ministries Agriculture Cyprus and Malta. The authorities blamed the introduction of the weevil on construction firms that imported materials from Egypt and Israel.
In French Corsica, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus appeared in 2006. The massive death of palm trees led the European Union to impose strict restrictions on the import of palm trees.
In the UAE, dogs have been taught to fight weevils. They operate "by the woodpecker method". Sheepdogs and Labradors sniff out the pest and report it to people.
The disaster has reached the New World. Mexico City authorities have to cut down entire alleys to save the rest of the palm trees and get rid of the harmful red weevil. According to the Mexican newspaper El Sol de San Luis, a few years ago the government managed to stop the invasion of Rhynchophorus ferrugineus, but the beetle again entered the country. Experts assure that he crossed the ocean in imported dates.
In September 2014, on the territory of Sochi, on the Canarian date, imported in 2013 from Italy, red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olive . (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is a dangerous quarantine phytophage that is a pest of palm trees (according to the literature data, both sugar cane and bananas, and therefore is a dangerous agricultural pest in countries where these crops are cultivated).
natural range- tropical regions of Southeast Asia: the islands of Polynesia, Vietnam, New Guinea, Indonesia, Cambodia, etc.
In the 1980-90s. the species has penetrated the Middle East and northern Africa. In connection with the construction boom and active landscaping in 2005. Rhynchophorusferrugineus was introduced to Spain, Italy, French Corsica, Cyprus, noted in Israel, and in 2009-2010. was found in Mexico, USA and Japan - about. Curacao. Since 2007, the European Union has adopted restriction on the import of palm trees in view of the invasion of this phytophage with introduced plant material.
The invasion of this phytophage is exclusively anthropogenic.- as a result of the export of planting material, vegetable fruit products. It must be said that the Rhynchophorus ferrugineus in view of morphological features and evolutionary genetic factors, it has a weak flying ability, can settle in a radius not exceeding 5 km, and leads a hidden lifestyle. It is also necessary to note the fact that diapause in the imago phase is characteristic of the species.
The main signs by which damage by the red palm weevil can be determined are:
Drying of the central rosette in the palm tree, discoloration of the leaves;
Lowering of the leaves, the crown of the palm tree has a roof-like appearance;
The presence of flight holes in the trunks of palms up to 3 cm in diameter;
Breaking the trunks of palm trees;
Detection inside the trunks of larvae, cocoons, pest beetles.
Bug red palm weevil - one of the largest representatives of the family - body length 35-50 mm. The body of the beetles is oblong, slightly flattened from above, the elytra are hard, from light ocher to rusty-brown in color with dark spots on the back. Sexual dimorphism is poorly developed: females are somewhat larger than males, with a longer rostrum and more convex elytra, while males have a longitudinal “mane” of rufous hairs on the upper side of the rostrum. The head of weevils is extended into a rostrum, the main purpose of which is to gnaw through a channel in plants and wood to feed and push the laid eggs into this channel.
Larva of the red palm weevil is large up to 5 cm, legless, C-shaped, whitish-cream in color with a brown head, consisting of a head shield with powerful gnawing mandibles. Interesting fact: large fleshy larvae of palm weevils are eaten by the local population of Africa and Southeast Asia.
Cocoon up to 5 cm long, from palm fibers, Brown, is usually found in the petioles of palm leaves. The pupae of weevils resemble beetles in shape with weakly expressed rudiments of wings, legs and rostrum.
Red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus refers to monovoltine species, that is, it has one generation per year. Life cycle monovoltine insects, as a rule, coincides with the annual cycle of development of host plants, however, diapausing individuals can increase the duration to two years or more. The egg phase lasts up to 7 days, larvae - 3-4 months, pupae 14-21 days. One female lays an average of 150-180 eggs (maximum - 350) on the top of the palm trees as close as possible to the point of growth. ( It should be remembered that the growing point of the palm tree is approximately 50 cm below the visible point of the end of the trunk !!! ) Hatching larvae penetrate inside the trunk and feed on plant tissues there, almost completely destroying the core and destroying the growing point of the palm tree. Damage is almost invisible until the palm tree dies.
Measures to control the red palm weevil:
Administrative: restriction of import of palm planting material from European nurseries and careful phytosanitary control of newly imported plants.
Mechanical: collection and destruction of all stages of the pest (burning). Destruction of the affected plant.
From chemicals during the growing season from March to December at an air temperature above +17 0 С, it is necessary to treat palm trees with insecticides based on imidacloprid (confidor, golden spark, commander) at the rate of 40 ml per 10 l of water or based on chlorpyrifos (dursban, sairen) at the rate of 80 ml per 10 liters of water. Processing is carried out at the rate of 10 liters of working fluid per plant.
Palm trees are an integral element of the garden landscapes of the city of Sochi. Currently, the red palm weevil is found only in a few places, on palms imported from nurseries in southern Italy. No weevil was found on old palm trees growing in the parks of Sochi.
However, the pest can settle and lead to the death of not only the Canarian date, but also other types of palms: bud (Chinese fan palm), chamerops (European fan palm), Washingtonia, Butia, Yubei, Sabal and others.
Karpun Natalya Nikolaevna - Deputy. Director for Science, Ph.D. biol. sciences, associate professor.
Feeding humanity is becoming increasingly difficult. We may soon have no choice but to start eating insects. A couple of years ago, experts already spoke at the UN with a report in support of this initiative. A massive transition to a new diet will improve not only the environment, but also people's health, because insects are an excellent source of healthy proteins. Look At Me invites you to get acquainted with those bugs and worms that may soon be on our plates.
Grasshopper Baking
In 2013, a group of students from McGill University (Montreal) received the prestigious Hult Award and $1 million for developing grasshopper meal to help fight hunger. Participants in the competition had to organize "a social enterprise capable of providing food to undernourished communities, in particular, 200 million people living in urban slums." As a result, the students did not come up with anything better than to breed grasshoppers in poor areas of Mexico, Thailand and Kenya, which will later turn into flour for baking and other products. According to the proposed technology, insects must first be dried and then frozen in sealed bags, then washed, dried again and ground into powder. As a result, the new power supply will not only be available all year round, but it will also be inexpensive. A pledged capital of $1 million will help them launch this program.
Peacock-eye larvae
Dried caterpillars of the moth Gonimbrasia belina have always been an important source of protein for South Africans. The gathering of these caterpillars is a common economic activity of Africans, and in the future, probably ours. Today, dried, smoked or pickled caterpillars are sold in supermarkets and markets, and cost four times more than traditional meat. To prepare the caterpillars for consumption, they are first cleaned of their entrails, either by simply squeezing them in their hands or cutting them lengthwise. After that, they are eaten raw or boiled in salted water and dried in the sun. They do not have a particularly bright taste and, according to those who have tried them, they look like dried tofu or tea leaves. Therefore, they are often served with fried onions or used in the preparation of soups, sauces and cereals.
silkworm larvae
What Australians call witchetti larvae are known among entomologists as gypsy moth larvae. They have always been a traditional food of the local Aboriginal people, who roasted them in coals or over an open fire. When cooked, the taste of the larvae resembles nuts with the taste of scrambled eggs and soft mozzarella cheese, wrapped in puff pastry. But the gourmets most accustomed to eating grubs eat them alive.
In Asia, silkworm larvae are also popular, only another - mulberry. Caterpillars that feed exclusively on mulberry leaves are considered a delicacy in Vietnam and China, they are endowed with mass useful properties. Insects feature prominently in Korean cuisine and are used in the popular dish ppondegi, which consists of larvae boiled in steam or in spiced oil. In Japan, silkworm larvae are served in the form of tsukudani, that is, boiled with seaweed in a marinade of soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar. In the Indian state of Assam, boiled pupae are eaten with salt or fried with chili peppers and herbs and eaten as a snack.
The silkworm has even been suggested as a possible alternative to the traditional diet of astronauts. Chinese researchers have said that insects can be a real lifesaver during long space travel, designed for several years. Miniature ecosystems in which larvae will grow and develop can become an almost inexhaustible source of animal protein.
Ants
Ants are distributed throughout the planet - from the Arctic to the tropics. They are dried in the sun, smoked, steamed. For example, in poor rural areas of Thailand, spicy rice with carpenter ants fried in oil is often cooked. Ants are very popular in Colombia, where local farmers sell them live and cooked on stalls for about $6 per kilo. In Cambodia and Laos, red wood ants are widely eaten, which are sold at local markets even cheaper - about $ 1 per 1 kg.
Indians living in the Amazon prefer to eat winged females. They are caught with baskets when they fly out of their nests in huge swarms, and their fried bellies are said to taste like fried bacon. Australian natives eat honey ants, which live underground at a depth of up to 2 m, but have a sweet taste. In Mexico, escamoles ant pupae are considered a delicacy and can be found on menus in city restaurants. They are usually served fried without any additions or boiled with garlic and onions.
termites
termites (they are not relatives of ants, although they look like them) widespread in African countries, especially in those adjacent to the Sahara desert. All representatives of the colony go to food, including eggs and females, the largest of which can reach the size of a potato tuber. Termites are also used to make a kind of butter. To do this, they are boiled and the surfaced fat is collected from the surface, after which it is used to prepare other dishes.
palm weevil
The larvae of the red palm weevil have long been part of traditional cuisine Southeast Asia, where they are deep-fried for several minutes and served with salt and a little white pepper. These larvae are also consumed raw - so they have a creamy taste, boiled - meaty, close to bacon. They are often cooked in palm flour. In New Guinea special holidays they are roasted on a spit.
The palm weevil is a rather large insect, and some individuals reach 8 cm in length. These insects are malicious pests that gnaw holes in the trunks of palm trees and kill plants.
"stink bugs"
tree bugs (or in the common people stink bugs) in many countries in South Africa they are eaten as a snack, but before that they are soaked in warm water to get rid of an unnecessarily harsh aroma. In South America (where they eat a local variety of stink bugs) they, on the contrary, are valued for their aroma, so they are added to food as a seasoning: they make sauces, fry and add to tacos and pates. The stink bugs are also valued for their strong smell in Vietnam, where they are used to make spicy roasts, and in Laos, where these insects are ground with spices and herbs into a paste called chio.
flour worms
beetle larvae (or flour beetle)- one of the few insects that are consumed in the Western world, for example, in the Netherlands. The nutritional value of mealworms can hardly be overestimated, in addition, they are rich in copper, sodium, potassium, iron, zinc and selenium. The Dutch scientist Arnold van Huys, one of the main promoters of the mealworm diet, together with the local school of cooks, even published a whole cookbook with recipes for dishes from these insects: you can find rolls, baskets and other dishes from larvae in it.
Everyone can now grow the food of the future. The project, developed by Tiny Farms, allows you to create a personal farm with everything you need to start growing edible beetle larvae at home. The set consists of two main containers, a mounting frame, a selection kit and an incubator. The company offers to either purchase a ready-to-work farm, or make it yourself according to the drawings that are posted in the public domain.
Saria Kvaratskhelia, Sputnik
In Abkhazia, new foci of infection of plants with palm weevil have been discovered. This time, the "dirty" got to the park of Prince of Oldenburg and Gagra, the green areas of two boarding houses in the Gagra district and the square near the Ministry of Repatriation in Sukhum.
The head of the laboratory of entomology and invasive species of the Institute of Ecology of the Academy of Sciences of Abkhazia, Mikhail Kiriya, told Sputnik that several palm trees had already died in two Gagra boarding houses. So far, one affected tree has been identified in Oldenburgsky Park. In Sukhum, on the territory of the Ministry of Repatriation, one adult palm tree was completely destroyed and two more new ones were affected. Environmentalists recommended cutting down and burning plantations attacked by the pest in the near future. Otherwise, the larvae can move to other trees.
The Institute of Ecology itself is not engaged in liquidation.
“We have been studying this issue for several years, we have developed methods for the preventive treatment of affected palm trees. We can provide some kind of advisory methodological assistance to all interested parties. However, these activities are not included in the institute’s responsibility. This is the responsibility of either the administrations of cities and districts, or the owners of the facilities on whose territories the pests were found," Mikhail Kiriya, head of the laboratory, explains.
Local governments need to be proactive.
"There are already specific places of infection. But this is associated with certain material costs. Insecticides are quite expensive and, of course, human resources are needed to carry out these works," the scientist explains.
Where do they come from
There were no problems with the palm weevil in Abkhazia five years ago. The pest was first detected in the republic in 2016. He has an excellent appetite. Dozens of palms have already fallen victim to the greasy grub.
The researcher does not rule out that the palm weevil is imported along with planting material.
"The probability that the palm weevil is imported along with imported plants is high. Because the focus of global distribution, in particular in Europe, is very high. In Russia, the weevil appeared due to planting material that was imported from Europe. There is a high the risk that palm weevil larvae may be present in planting material imported from other countries," said Mikhail Kiriya.
On the territory of the Ministry for Repatriation, where the pest was found, the Ashta landscape group, which has been working in Abkhazia since 2005, was engaged in landscaping.
“When the Ministry of Repatriation approached us about landscaping, we were told that mature old palm trees were falling for no reason. We then asked them to conduct an environmental audit. Then we planted material that we had for two years. Our palm trees were periodically processed, we took care of them, as expected, cut off the branches. If they were infected with something, then it could be seen after pruning. When you cut a leaf, if holes are found, then the palm tree is infected. But no holes was not,” said the director of “Ashta” Asida Agrba.
The signal that a weevil was found on one adult palm tree and two new stands was received a few days ago. The director thinks it's a little late, and yet there is hope for the plants to heal.
“And we accordingly turned to the relevant structures, in particular, the Institute of Ecology, which learned about the problem through us. Of course, we are in favor of saving the palm tree, if possible. We have already carried out a full processing. hibernation, and it makes no sense to process. Processing should be carried out every 20 days from May to June. If we have worked somewhere, planted plants, then we keep it under control, we have a calendar, we go periodically and treat, "Asida explains Agrba.
Weevil filter
Entrepreneurs import planting material to Abkhazia from Europe. They personally go to purchases and carefully select plants.
“We signed an agreement with one of the European nurseries and began to cooperate. We import first-class goods, we select them on the spot, we personally go, we choose very carefully. That is, we don’t say: “You put a couple of bricks there for us.” After that, they hang on them special tags are stored and sent to us. Many people say that during the landscaping of Sochi before the Olympics, many pests were brought along with planting material. I don’t know where the plants were taken from in Sochi, but the nursery with which we cooperate is very serious. They we were taught to work. The director himself walks with us, selects. They have the concept of a phyto-doctor," says Agrba about the process.
Plants, before entering the republic, are treated with special insecticides, after which the phytodoctor gives a certificate - a guarantee that the product is disinfected.
"This is what healthy capitalism is. Having received a certificate, the car leaves, everything is carefully checked at the border with the European Union, and we receive a certificate again. And we receive another certificate, now from our quarantine inspection, which periodically checks us. We have one marketplace. Our products are not sold anywhere else. We process plants twice a month, "explains the director of the landscape group.
After the product arrives in Abkhazia, it undergoes two more phytosanitary treatments according to European methods. This is done as a safety net so that the plants do not pick up the infection already in Abkhazia.
“You can’t imagine how many insects flock to our products already here. Because everything around is infected. We treat our plants and cultivate the area around, but we are not able to process everything in the republic. The problems in Abkhazia are very serious and this happens because for uncontrolled private importation from both borders. And first of all from Georgia. It is not known what is being imported here. Recently, social networks have made a fuss about why Russia banned the import of fruits and vegetables from Abkhazia. Because they have a quarantine service. The state protects itself. But we should do exactly the same. We are not an ownerless state. Well, close your borders, control the import. And you will not have this disgrace. We ourselves several times were the initiators of strengthening quarantine and stopping uncontrolled imports," Asida Agrba said .
Small checks
In order to check the presence of illegally transported planting material, a Sputnik correspondent went around the Gudauta and Sukhumi markets. In Gudauta, the saleswoman said that everything is brought from Krasnodar, and planting material gets there from Holland. Her words are confirmed by a stamp with a barcode on a plastic bag. We read the label with a smartphone - the manufacturer's website in Holland opens.
© Sputnik
When asked where else you can find planting material, the saleswoman replies: “You need to visit the market periodically. Sometimes people come who sell both palm trees and others on the streets. exotic plants".
This time it was not possible to find illegally imported planting material in Sukhum either.
According to the head of the State Plant Quarantine Inspectorate of Abkhazia Arkady Dzhindzhiya, the quarantine service carefully checks all imported products.
"I heard that the palm weevil could be imported along with imported products. In order to check whether this is so, I instructed to check the plants again at the places where seedlings are sold. If plants were imported through Georgia, our inspectors would see This is exactly what concerns palm plantations. There has never been such a case yet. Maybe somehow from some other places where our inspectors are not available," suggested Arkady Dzhindzhia.
What to do?
Despite the fact that a small journalistic check did not reveal the source of the infection, the palm weevil problem is becoming more and more urgent. Scientists and entrepreneurs see one way out in the total processing of all palm trees in Abkhazia.
"It is necessary to process all the seedlings that are imported to Abkhazia, not just from the outside, but to completely impregnate the plant itself from the inside in order to prevent further development larvae. But it's impossible to process everything. There are no such funds," scientist Mikhail Kiriya added.
Forecasts of specialists are disappointing. If the problem is not stopped now, Abkhazia may soon be left without palm trees.
Thai cuisine is very diverse and exotic. You can buy a ready-made insect dish in Thailand everywhere. This is one of the highlights. Fried grasshoppers and other exotic delicacies for us are sold on the streets directly from the stalls. In addition to the notorious grasshoppers, here you can buy interesting and exotic insect dishes - buns with silkworm larvae, chocolate-covered crickets, and more.
Europeans who have tasted insect dishes say that their taste is not so bad. In general, the entire Thai (and not only) nation falls under the definition of Entomophagy - the phenomenon of eating insects. In many Asian countries, there are entire kitchens for cooking insects. In fact, insects are eaten in more than a hundred countries around the world. And this is not surprising.
A person is born omnivorous, but few are ready to take it to heart and eat, for example, bedbugs or crickets. Meanwhile, insects are eaten all over the globe: they have more protein than chicken meat, are full of iron, magnesium and other important elements, and finally, it's just delicious. 
Insects are very nutritious, they contain almost no fat and at the same time are a source of a large amount of proteins. Among other things, insects contain useful microelements and even vitamins. Thus, the field cricket contains 20.72% protein, and the Indian locust contains 25.88%. Gold beetles and dragonfly larvae are a storehouse of minerals, especially phosphorus and calcium. Not surprisingly, insects are recommended by the world's nutritionists. And the energy component of an insect dinner is in no way inferior to a meal of ordinary meat.
In total, there are 1462 species of edible insects in the world, and it is unlikely that all of them can be tried in a lifetime. True, thanks to the Internet, in order to eat this or that insect, it is no longer necessary to go to Thailand, Uganda or New Guinea: there are more and more companies that sell insects online.
We will try to tell you about the most delicious recipes, according to tourists, exotic insect dishes, which are a real highlight of food in Thailand.
Crickets in chocolate
About twenty crickets are euthanized (!) in the freezer, after which the hind limbs are removed, and the insects are laid out on a baking sheet. Dry the insects in the oven for at least 1-2 hours at a temperature of 250 degrees. At this time, melt a few bars of chocolate on the fire, then alternately dip the crickets in the melted chocolate, and lay them out on paper. The dish is ready after the chocolate hardens. You need to eat such a dish with caution, fried crickets make a specific sound, when chewing they click a little.
Fried bamboo worms
For Thais, a plate of fried bamboo worms is as traditional a way to start a meal as salad or soup is for Europeans. Their taste and texture are a bit like popcorn, although they do not have any special pronounced taste, but they are very nutritious.
In fact, these are not worms at all, but the larvae of a grass moth from the grass moth family (Crambidae) living in bamboo. Traditionally harvested by cutting bamboo stalks, they have recently been commercially farmed and packaged in bags like chips.
Bizarre Food products can, for example, be bought in England. In addition to Thailand, bamboo worms are eaten with pleasure in China and the Amazon.
Barbecue from beetle larvae
Barbels, large and shiny beetles with long antennae, are distributed throughout the world, and there are many of them in Russia. We also call them lumberjack beetles, in the English-speaking world - capricorn beetles (capricorn beetle).
Longhorn beetle larvae found in the roots of sago palms are a very popular village food in Eastern Indonesia. For the sake of fat and juicy larvae, Indonesians sometimes nullify small palm groves, and then, neatly strung on rods, roast the larvae over the fire. They have tender flesh, but a very dense skin that needs to be chewed for a long time. The larvae taste like greasy bacon.
The larvae have another use: the villagers use them as an ear brush - a live larva is put into the ear, holding the tail with your fingers, and it quickly eats away the ear wax.
Earthworm cutlets
The recipe for this insect dish is simple. To begin with, the worms are boiled in boiling water. After they are crushed with a blender and lemon zest, salt, baked milk and white pepper. Everything is thoroughly mixed. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with salt. Minced worms are dipped in an egg, after breadcrumbs and goes to a heated frying pan. Such cutlets are fried for ten minutes, certainly on each side. Before serving, they are seasoned with sour cream.
Another delicious insect dish is caramelized grasshoppers. Before pouring grasshoppers into caramel, they are fried in a cauldron with oatmeal.
Cheese with cheese fly larvae
In Sardinia, casu marzu is considered an aphrodisiac and is traditionally eaten with worms. Moreover, casu marzu is considered safe to eat only as long as the larvae are alive. This is not easy to do: disturbed larvae, reaching a centimeter in length, can jump out of the cheese to a height of 15 cm - many cases have been described when they fell into the eye of someone who tasted the cheese. Therefore, casu marzu lovers often eat this cheese with glasses or, spreading it on bread, cover the sandwich with their hand. However, removing the larvae from the cheese is not considered a crime. The easiest way is to put a piece of cheese or a sandwich in a paper bag and close it tightly: suffocating larvae begin to jump out. When the shooting in the bag stops, the cheese can be eaten.
Of course, casu marzu does not meet any EU hygiene standards and was banned for a long time (it could only be bought on the black market at a price twice the price of an ordinary pecorino). But in 2010, casu marzu was recognized as a cultural property of Sardinia and allowed again. In Thailand, this unusual insect dish is also very common.
Pizza with rhinoceros beetle larvae
The dough comes out of the refrigerator. The base of the pizza is ketchup and mayonnaise sauce. Tomatoes, peppers, onions and cheese are laid out on top. Roasted rhinoceros beetle larvae are laid out on top. They are seasoned with pepper and herbs. Pizza is baked in a preheated oven at 180 degrees.
Dried mopane caterpillars with onions
Dried caterpillars of the moth Gonimbrasia belina, a South African peacock-eye species that lives in mopane trees, is an important source of protein for South Africans. Collecting these caterpillars in Africa is quite a serious business: in supermarkets and markets you can find both dried and hand-smoked caterpillars, as well as pickled caterpillars rolled up in tins.
To cook a caterpillar, you must first squeeze out its green intestines (usually the caterpillars are simply squeezed in the hand, less often they are cut lengthwise, like a pea pod), and then boiled in salted water and dried.
Sun-dried or smoked caterpillars are very nutritious, weigh almost nothing and keep for a long time, but do not have a special taste (most often they are compared to dried tofu or even dry wood). Therefore, they are usually fried to a crisp with onions, added to stews, stewed in various sauces, or served with sadza corn porridge.
However, very often mopanes are also eaten raw, whole or, as in Botswana, having previously torn off their heads. They taste like tea leaves. Caterpillars are collected by hand, usually women and children do this. And if in the forest they belong to anyone, then collecting caterpillars on neighboring trees is considered bad form. In Zimbabwe, women even mark trees with their caterpillars or carry young caterpillars closer to home, setting up plantations of sorts.
Meal worms with vegetables and rice
At this time, flour worms are simmered in a separate pan with oil. During the frying process, they slightly increase in size. After roasting, the worms are seasoned with salt and pepper and mixed with rice and vegetables. The mixture comes on fire for another five minutes. The dish is served hot and garnished with freshly cut greens.
boiled wasps
The older generation of the Japanese still respects wasps and bees, prepared by the most different ways. One of these dishes, hachinoko, is bee larvae boiled with soy sauce and sugar: a translucent, sweetish caramel-like mass that goes well with rice. Wasps are prepared in the same way - a dish with them is called jibatinoko. For older Japanese, this dish reminds of the post-war years and the rationing system, when wasps and bees were eaten especially actively in Japan. It is in steady demand in Tokyo restaurants, even if only as a nostalgic attraction.
In general, hachinoko and jibatinoko are considered quite a rare specialty of Nagano Prefecture. Roasted black wasps are a little more common: they are sometimes served with beer in Japanese taverns. Another specialty - rice crackers with earthen wasps - is made in the village of Omachi. These are small cookies with adult wasps stuck in there - each has from 5 to 15 wasps.
Japanese dishes made from wild wasps and bees are not cheap: it is impossible to put this business on stream, the preparation itself is quite laborious. Wasp and bee hunters tie long colored threads to adults and thus track their nests. However, canned bees can also be found in Japanese stores - usually beekeeping farms sell surplus in this way.
Silkworm fried with ginger
However, tender larvae, crispy on the outside and soft inside, are successfully combined with almost any vegetables and spices. Properly cooked, they taste like crab or shrimp meat.
No less popular are silkworm larvae in Korea. Trays with beondegas, boiled larvae with spices or steamed larvae, are found throughout the country. And in stores, canned silkworms are sold, which must be boiled before use. They are also loved in Japan, especially in Nagato, and Japanese astrophysicist Masamichi Yamashita even suggests including silkworms in the diet of future Mars colonists.
Cookies with crickets and chocolate chips
Such cookies are decorated with the same crickets, slightly recessed in the dough. Cookies are baked for 15 minutes at a temperature of 180 degrees. This unpretentious dish of insects can also be offered to you in Thailand right on the street from merchants.
fried ants
In Colombia, fried ants are even sold in movie theaters instead of popcorn. Most of all in Colombia, female ants with eggs are loved. They are caught on rainy days, when the water fills the anthills and the females get out.
In the simplest rustic version, they are cooked by wrapping them in leaves and holding them a little over the fire. It is a crunchy, sweet snack with a distinct nutty flavor.
But the most delicious ants, the so-called "honey", are found in Australia. They feed on sweet nectar, carrying it in swollen stomachs of the abdomen (in Russian-language literature they are called "ant barrels"). These clear bubbles are considered a sweet delicacy among the Australian Aborigines. In addition, two genera of honey ants are found in South Africa and the semi-deserts of North America.
deep fried water bugs
The Asian variety, Lethocerus indicus, is the largest of the family at 12 cm long, so the Thais simply deep-fry them and serve them with plum sauce. The meat of water bugs tastes like shrimp.
At the same time, in Thailand they are eaten whole, in the Philippines they tear off the legs and wings (and in this form are served with strong drinks as a snack), and in Vietnam they make a very odorous extract from them, which is added to soups and sauces. One drop is enough for a bowl of soup.
Grasshoppers with avocado
Like any small fried insect, the fried grasshopper does not have a prominent flavor, and usually its taste is that of the oil and spices in which it was fried. Grasshoppers sold by street vendors in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, are simply overcooked chitin shells.
In general, grasshoppers are eaten wherever insects are eaten. Boiled in salt water and dried in the sun, grasshoppers are eaten in the Middle East, in China they are strung on skewers like kebabs, and in Uganda and nearby regions they are added to soups. It is curious that in Uganda, until recently, women were not allowed to eat grasshoppers - it was believed that then they give birth to children with deformed, like grasshoppers, heads.
Dragonflies in coconut milk
Caught large dragonflies, whose wings are first cut off, are either quickly grilled or boiled in coconut milk with ginger and garlic. Dragonflies are also made into something like lollipops, fried in coconut oil and sprinkled with sugar.
Ice cream from flour worms
Boil for 5 minutes, then pass through a fine sieve and keep on low heat until the mass hardens. Remove from heat, pour in a tablespoon lemon juice and chill in the refrigerator.
Bed bugs with chicken pate
In contrast, the Mexican stink bug is valued for its strong, medicinal smell, probably due to its high iodine content. American TV presenter Andrew Zimmern, who ate shield bugs on an episode of his television series Bizarre Foods, compares their taste to tutti frutti gum.
In Mexico, bedbugs are made into sauces, added to tacos, or fried and mixed with chicken pate.
For their strong smell, bugs are also valued in Vietnam, where they are used to prepare a spicy dish, and in Laos, where bugs are ground into cheo paste with spices and herbs.
Charcoal grilled tarantulas
Large tarantula-tarantulas, reaching 28 cm in diameter, are eaten in Venezuela, simply by roasting them on coals. A slightly more elegant way of preparing tarantulas is used in Japan: first, the abdomen of the spider is torn off, then the hairs are singeed and quickly fried in tempura.
However, it is believed that the most delicious spiders are not tarantulas, but spiders from the Nephilidae family, which are eaten in New Guinea and Laos. These spiders taste like peanut butter when fried.
A special delicacy is lollipops with grasshoppers. They are placed in a special form and poured with hot caramel. And the worms, before being dipped in honey, are sent to graze in a pan with oatmeal. Those who have strong enough nerves to try the dishes are said to be very tasty.
Bon appetit! 🙂
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