Nicole's Bug of the Week - A Brief on Edible Insects

This entry for bug of the week is an interesting one.  Enjoy!

Edible Insects

This week’s article is another combo deal, so if you liked the two-for-one of the last bug of the week entry, you’re going to love this. By popular demand, this article will be covering several kinds of edible bugs. While the concept of eating bugs might seem pretty gross, the practice (known as entomophagy) is nothing out of the usual for about 2 billion people worldwide, not to mention that in some regions certain bugs are seen as delicacies.

If you’ve got a yard, there are probably bugs in it that you can eat, just so long as you are sure to cook them well beforehand as most bugs will carry nematodes and parasites that can be harmful to you. The three most common bugs that are native to North America are going to be ants, crickets, and grasshoppers (that’s right, that weird kid that used to sit on the playground eating the ants was actually way ahead of you.). Crickets and ants can be gathered, roasted, and eaten as you please, but you might want to be a little more wary of the grasshoppers as some, like the eastern lubber grasshopper common to Texas, can make you sick. Locusts on the other hand are quite safe to eat and commonly served roasted on skewers.

However, if your stomach won’t abide the idea of eating some bugs you just found on the ground, the good news is that there’s a lot of food made of bugs that doesn’t look or taste like it’s made of bugs. For example, the company Chirps has six flavors of cricket chips as well as cookie mix made with cricket flour. Look around a bit and you can find protein bars, candy bars, and even jerky made out of crickets. If you’re feeling a little braver you can find dried crickets in flavors ranging from BBQ sauce to mango, toffee coconut, and surprisingly, pumpkin spice.

So the good news is that if you really want to eat some bugs, not only can you, but it’s pretty easy. Not to mention that most bugs are high in iron, B12, and pack a lot of protein as well as coming naturally in a variety of flavors. So who knows? Maybe sometime soon you’ll be reaching for a bag of sea salt and vinegar crickets instead of potato chips or sprinkling some sugared black ants on top of your favorite dessert. It couldn’t hurt to try, right?

Louv, Matt. 12 Edible Bugs That Could Help You Survive. 27 June , 2018. https://www.backpacker.com/survival/12-edible-bugs-that-could-help-you-survive.  Accessed 24 August 2018

Chirps. https://chirpschips.com/ Accessed 24 August 2018

Thanks Nicole,

Blayne