Eating Insects

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sevenedges

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I have eaten insects on several occasions.
(Large Black Ants and Crickets.)
My question is are they safe to eat?
Some sources say they are fine and a good source of protein. Other sources say that they could be potentially dangerous due to the foods that they have eaten, ie. oleander, death cammus. And or parisites that they can carry.

If they are indeed safe to eat should they be cooked first, or can they be consumed raw?

I have never felt any ill effect of any insects that I have eaten so far but would like some advice on this subject.

Later, Jeff
 
I read in a mountain biking magazine that you end up ingesting 2 lbs of insects per year. I assume that most of that comes from processed food.

I know that insects are excellent sources of protein, but I just can't get past the Western socialization of eating insects (or arachnids for that matter). Being a mild aracnophobe, the thought of eating a tarantula (and its eggs) is nauseating. I cna even make myself sick if I think about how closely related crabs, lobsters, and shrimp are to spiders. And I love crab.

Crickets, depending on what they've been feeding upon should be fine, but I don't know about certian species of ants. The large black ones you're descibing are probably fine too. I would want to eat a fire ant or any of the more tropical species that produce formic acid.

Grubs and maggots are supposed to be highly nutritious as well. Think about what they are: a protein and fat storage device to produce the procreating form of the insect.

Sorry to get off topic. Hopefully there are others here that will have more definitive answers.

gm
 
I've been eating bugs for some time. To be sure there are some that are noxious, some that are good and some that are deadly. The Cantharides are one family of beetles that are worth avoiding.

In general it is best to cook insects. Not so much because of what they have been eating but because of the parasites they may carry. Grasshoppers are a good example. Cooked they are wonderful crunchy snacks and are filled with proteins and fats. Raw they can make you sicker than a dog. Just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it won't.

I've eaten a LOT of maggots. Fly larvae are nasty smelly things but if you wash them in a few changes of cold water then boil them, you will get rid of most of the smell and disease. Take the drained boiled maggots and drop them in a fry pan with a dollop of tallow and some spices and you will have a hard time telling them from fried rice. I used to cook them for students and it was always fun to watch their faces after they found out!

Getting past the smell is always a challenge. Most moths taste a lot like almonds. Tsuri grubs (Palm grubs) are mostly fat and are safe to eat raw. They taste just like heart of palm. That gives you some idea of what you will encounter taste wise when you eat crawlers. Dung beetles are not even worth considering.

THere are several sites on the net than can give you good advice as well as caloric value of many insects. In general insects yield better proteins and more fats than beef. THe proteins are for the most part, complete, i.e. they have all the amino acids needed by humans.

Hope that helps.

Ron

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I'm going to vomit. I couldn't do it. I can personally go without food for so long, that things would have to be dire indeed, before i would consider it. I would rather eat a dead comrade, before I'd put a bug in my mouth. And shut up about the crabs, lobsters, and shrimp! You are killing me.
frown.gif
 
I guess I could tell you about the prion diseases that come from cannabalism. If you had one you'd forget what I said right after I said it.. later you'd be unable to walk and finally you would just die.

If you are going to eat human flesh it is better to eat babies. Less contamination and they taste a lot like monkeys. I do prefer maggots tho'... easier to clean and not so many pesky bones
smile.gif


ROn



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Learn Life Extension at:

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Thanks a ton Ron,
I now live near the sierras and spend a fair amount of time there.
I know you used to live there also. Are most bugs in the sierras safe to eat then?
Assuming they are cooked.
I am not a bug identifiying expert so I'll stick to grasshoppers, crickets, blackants, and grubs right now.
These should keep me going along with the trapping, hunting, fishing and foraging on my trip next week.

Thanks again Ron,
-Jeff

[This message has been edited by salamander (edited 06-27-2001).]
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by salamander:
I have eaten insects on several occasions.
(Large Black Ants and Crickets.)
My question is are they safe to eat?
Some sources say they are fine and a good source of protein.</font>
Click to expand...
I don't know for sure about where you live, but where I live and where I've been, the only insects safe to eat [raw] are ants as all the others practically always carry parasites.

They may be good protein as such, and an anthill could easily be home for ants together massing as much as you do, but I don't know how easy it'd be to catch enough of them to call it a "good" source of protein.

 
Salamander,

The big grubs found in the Spring inside of downed trees are excellent. THere are generally a lot of them in one location so you don't waste a lot of time and energy gathering them.

Black ant "Traps" are good. Just something that looks like a pad woven of cattails and placed on a stirred up net will get you a bunch. I generally just smoke them off the pad onto a pan. Red ants are a bit bitter (formic acid) but black ants have been used a a sweetner for ages.

Stay away from stink bugs. Those things taste really bad although they won't actually hurt you.

Ron

------------------
Learn Life Extension at:

http://www.survival.com ]
 
I'm so glad I read this just before lunch. If this thread keeps up long enough and I visit it every day I'll lose the spare pounds I need to get rid of in no time.

 
Come on guys,
Some bugs are down right delicious.
smile.gif
Like the large Black Ants. They actually taste like blackberries to me when eaten alive.
In fact if I was blind folded and had never eaten ants before I would guess thats what they were. When you cook them they have a roasted flavor, though not as good as they are raw. The crickets have a roasted flavor even raw. A little weird at first maybe but the more time you spen in the wilderness the crazier (and mentally heathier) you get.
wink.gif


-Jeff
 
I thought the cannibalism disease only aflicted people that eat human brains.Is that portion just a myth?

I better learn what plants to eat. I think I would throw up so violently if I tried to eat a bug, that it would have to be counterproductive. I would lose the food plus dehydrate.

I know it is a terrible irrational phobia, but what can you do?
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Stormbringer:
I thought the cannibalism disease only aflicted people that eat human brains.Is that portion just a myth?

I better learn what plants to eat. I think I would throw up so violently if I tried to eat a bug, that it would have to be counterproductive. I would lose the food plus dehydrate.

I know it is a terrible irrational phobia, but what can you do? </font>
Click to expand...

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) is the form of "Mad Cow" disease that affects humans. There is some strong, though not definate, evidence that the prion responsible for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)in cows is the same as that in CJD (and Scrapie in sheep). The brain and spinal cord have the highest risk of infection because that is where the prion replicates. Other organs have certian risk as well, with muscle tissue being much lower risk than the brain. It is likely, though unproven, that those cases of CJD were transmitted from animals infected with BSE or Scrapie.

BSE is thought to have originated from using ground up sheep as part of cattle feed. Usually, diseases do not infect other species, but it does happen (and prions are unlike viruses or bacteria).

There is no test for the prion that causes CJD, BSE, or Scrapie. I'm not a brains eater anyway. I think I'd almost rather eat bugs than brains.

gm
 
How about earwigs? I'm surrounded by millions of earwigs. If I could turn them into a source of protean I could save a lot of money. Can they be cooked and eaten or are they really bad?
 
Until this afternoon I had not tried earwigs. They have a "pop in your mouth" crunchieness to them that I enjoyed. The flavor was a tad bitter, somewhat like bile but not as severe. There is a mild aftertaste that is not unlike crickets.

The cooked ones were better. They tasted like the butter I fried them in.

Incidentally I found a bunch of them under an old log. I harvested close to a 1/4 cup in a few minutes.

Thanks for the idea. You should try them.

Ron
 
Aw man, tastes like bile but has the aftertaste of crickets??? WTF!

All I can picture is that bug eating lackey of Count Dracula.

Do any of your family members participate in these "feasts"?

My hat is off to you guys for being able to do it. A friend of our family taught survival in the Air FOrce. When at the beach he would have us gather up sandcrabs by the dozen and pop them alive and kicking into his mouth one after another to entertain the kids and horrify the ladies.

Imagine the horror of your dentist as he picks cricket legs from between your teeth!:eek: :barf: :confused:
 
Thanks Ron. Depending on where you are, earwigs can certainly be easy to find. I'll see if I can gather up the nerve to give them a try, cooked for sure and maybe mixed with some rice...
 
Originally posted by Stormbringer
I know it is a terrible irrational phobia, but what can you do?
Click to expand...

Like so many things in life, it's a matter of practice and starting smaller, then going on to bigger (more nutritious) things. You could start with whichever bug repulses you the least and cook it so it won't be moving & will approximate the appearance of more usual food. Once you've done that, you will realize that you can do it. Subsequent learning experiences with other bugs won't be so hard then, because they can be referenced back to your initial experience. Plus you will be well ahead of the sheeple since you understand what your capabilities really are, because you've tested and proven them to yourself.

The item I saw that looked pretty "interesting" was an aborigine eating some kind of marine worm. The worm was easily over a foot long. To eat it, the man stripped its alimentary canal of food/poop by squeezing it just behind its head and "milking" it in one stroke all the way to the tail. IIRC he then tore the head off and swallowed the remaining body whole. Just like a spaghetti noodle!

As an old farm boy and former meatcutter who has butchered and cut up plenty of animals in my time, let me just say that you do not want to know what your dinner chicken or (heaven forbid) sausage went through or looked like as it was being processed on its way to your table. The food we eat (U.S.A. for me) may well look sickening or barbaric to other cultures, depending on what they are used to eating. A lot of our standard for what is "food" is simply cultural acclimatization as we grow up. Exposing yourself to new foods (arts, cultures, music, etc) simply gives you more opportunities to grow.

Yours in foods of many types,
Greg
 
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