Locusts for Lunch

[Sensei]

23 hours ago, taeto said:

If you are too squeamish, pass them through the digestive system of the chickens first.

..or simply don't ask "what am I eating?" Frogs taste like chickens with a bit of fishy taste..

 

[taeto]

3 hours ago, CharonY said:

Just dry roasted? Interesting. I thought they would be somewhat low on fat for that.

Typically they are boiled in water or oven baked at low heat. They are treated and have taste much like shrimp.

[dimreepr]

A starving person, knowing they have food, will find a way to eat; even a posh person can aquire the ability. I can't think of a better method of catching them than the trawler net method, it may destroy the crop (but it was going to be eaten anyway) as it captures the locusts; and I can't think of the limit of it's scalability. 

Edited April 25, 2020 by dimreepr

[Moontanman]

On 4/22/2020 at 9:36 PM, iNow said:

Well, right now they’re eating the whole of Africa. Being humans at a higher level of the food chain than they are, I’d like to turn the tables and start eating them by the billions. Turn them into flour, candy, salad fixins, whatever... but get them to stop eating core crops. 

As long as they are not eaten raw you are good to go, being a natural born hillbilly anything that moves slow enough to catch is potentially on the menu... Swamp rabbit  was always my fav!

On 4/22/2020 at 8:08 PM, Endy0816 said:

They are edible. Nets are in fact traditionally used to catch the grasshopper swarms.

I have large nets I use to catch grasshoppers for fish food...

[MigL]

Growing up in the 'Italian tradition', rabbit was almost as common as chicken for supper.
And I love it; even more so now that my parents have long passed, and I don't have very often.

But I had never heard of 'swamp rabbit' till today, Moon.

[Moontanman]

4 minutes ago, MigL said:

Growing up in the 'Italian tradition', rabbit was almost as common as chicken for supper.
And I love it; even more so now that my parents have long passed, and I don't have very often.

But I had never heard of 'swamp rabbit' till today, Moon.

Tame rabbit or wild rabbit?  I never tried tame rabbit, they seem to be a bit meatier than the skinny wild ones...

[MigL]

I've had both.
Wild is much more sought after by the older generation Italians.
I prefer tame as it is readily available in Italian supermarkets, or stores that carry 'Mennonite' raised meats.

[dimreepr]

12 hours ago, MigL said:

I've had both.
Wild is much more sought after by the older generation Italians.

Wild is much better that's why; if you could taste my grans rabbit stew you'd see the light... And she's English 😁 

Edited April 26, 2020 by dimreepr

[MigL]

I'm waiting for the invitation to supper at your granma's, Dim.

Sorry, INow. I'll have to decline your invite to the locust stir-fry dinner.

[iNow]

Mmmm. Locust teriyaki... sipping on some sake. Maybe while watching a bit of hockey... you’ll be missed at the party 

[dimreepr]

9 minutes ago, MigL said:

I'm waiting for the invitation to supper at your granma's, Dim.

You'll be waiting a while, which was her attitude to boiling anything that contained veg; a trick that only worked, in her rabbit/mutton stew.  

[Moontanman]

3 hours ago, MigL said:

I'm waiting for the invitation to supper at your granma's, Dim.

Sorry, INow. I'll have to decline your invite to the locust stir-fry dinner.

 

6 hours ago, dimreepr said:

Wild is much better that's why; if you could taste my grans rabbit stew you'd see the light... And she's English 😁 

 

3 hours ago, iNow said:

Mmmm. Locust teriyaki... sipping on some sake. Maybe while watching a bit of hockey... you’ll be missed at the party 

I wish I could invite you guys to my mawmaw's house for dinner, unfortunately she is gone, along with her cabin, her wood stove and my pawpaw who caught the swamp rabbits and sold their skins.. yeah I skinned them out too... Set Traps all up and down the Poca River in WV with a paddle and a wooden boat.

[CharonY]

On 4/25/2020 at 5:08 AM, taeto said:

Typically they are boiled in water or oven baked at low heat. They are treated and have taste much like shrimp.

I only had them once (but they were the tiny variant) and I found them somewhat dry and thought it lacked it a bit of fat.

[taeto]

37 minutes ago, CharonY said:

I only had them once (but they were the tiny variant) and I found them somewhat dry and thought it lacked it a bit of fat.

The tiny ones get sprinkled onto some dishes kind of as a spice, except they are not really too spicy as such. Their richness in proteins can make the food seem heavy. I have not been able to finish such a dish without leaving something over. Not that I found the taste to be bad, just the richness seemed overwhelming.

[Moontanman]

My fav cooking show!

 

[MigL]

Thought it was kind of funny, that she swatted away flies, while she was cooking... crickets ?
Wouldn't want to get bugs in your bugs.

[Moontanman]

13 minutes ago, MigL said:

Thought it was kind of funny, that she swatted away flies, while she was cooking... crickets ?
Wouldn't want to get bugs in your bugs.

Yeah she cooks outside in primitive conditions but cooked bugs don't carry bacteria... flies do...

[Moontanman]

I'm eating a catfish sandwich at the moment, really good, just hard to keep the little bastard from wriggling off the bread...

 

[StringJunky]

3 minutes ago, Moontanman said:

I'm eating a catfish sandwich at the moment, really good, just hard to keep the little bastard from wriggling off the bread...

 

Proper sushi sandwhich.

[devicemaker]

probably the craziest idea proposed here but in the interest of thinking out of the box...

How about a high powered laser integrated with an electronic system that can detect (via high speed camera) these incoming critters and fire pulsed laser shots to down them mid air. 

A kind of ground based "star wars" system that would rapidly produce a mountain of dead insects.  

Given the speed at which fibre lasers can fire shots (hundreds of KHz) it should be possible in theory.  Being able to redirect the high power, well collimated beam rapidly via mirrors would be the most difficult task as would be accurate detection in 3D space.  As long as the imaging system detects even one of these insects in the path of a laser beam (as an oscillating X-Y mirror sweeps the terrain), the trigger to fire the laser is delivered. 

The system could be mobile.  Truck mounted and driven to the area where these insects are incoming. 

I doubt it would eliminate the pestilence but perhaps it could along with other strategies (i.e. pesticides, pehremone traps, burning the crops ahead of time...etc) put a dent in their population. 

 

 

[iNow]

1 hour ago, devicemaker said:

put a dent in their population.

That’s be a cool laser! I suspect, however, there’d be serious collateral damage with what you proposed and I know I wouldn’t want to be between that laser and the locusts you’re targeting

[Airbrush]

On 4/22/2020 at 7:06 PM, iNow said:

Right now, amid the covid-19 global pandemic and climate change and so much more, locusts are also decimating crops and amplifying starvation across the African continent. They’re everywhere and they’re hungry and people are hurting with hunger.

What would it take to catch the locusts en masse / at scale and use then as a source of protein to feed the hungry? Essentially: Prevent them from causing starvation and use them to solve starvation.

I’m thinking of something like a giant fishing net for the air, but am sure there are far better ideas (am not sure, however, humans can even eat locusts, but they seem close enough to crickets).   

This sounds like a great idea!  All you need to do is grind them up and make them taste like something we are familiar with.  However, the idea of eating any insect creeps me out totally.😲

[iNow]

2 minutes ago, Airbrush said:

All you need to do is grind them up and make them taste like something we are familiar with.

So, make them taste like whiskey?

[Dord]

1 hour ago, Airbrush said:

All you need to do is grind them up and make them taste like something we are familiar with.  However, the idea of eating any insect creeps me out totally

As omnivores, humans have eaten all manner of things throughout history and across the globe.  Modern incarnations include bush-meat, cats, pet rabbits, all the various bits of an animal's genitalia and even bat soup.  They may not sound appealing to some, but others regard them as nutritious delicacies - It's just a matter of taste!

As for catching insects for food, are you aware of the Mali lake flies?  Not exactly on an industrial scale but the kids love it and the biscuits are pretty tasty.
 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs33k1b6N_A

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Dord

[Airbrush]

On 5/29/2020 at 1:46 PM, Dord said:

As omnivores, humans have eaten all manner of things throughout history and across the globe.  Modern incarnations include bush-meat, cats, pet rabbits, all the various bits of an animal's genitalia and even bat soup.  They may not sound appealing to some, but others regard them as nutritious delicacies - It's just a matter of taste!

It's a matter of experience.  Taste is subjective.   If you grow up eating exotic foods they seem normal.  If you don't....they don't.

Edited June 5, 2020 by Airbrush