Nocturnal Bug Harvesting

Local residents may start to talk about you walking around in the dark, under the street lights and along building walls shining a flashlight but this can be the best time to collect edible bugs from the wild.  In just a few minutes this morning at 5am I gathered enough bugs to have a great tasting and nutritious snack after work!

Phyllophaga fusca beetles and crickets seem to be most abundant locally this time of year and are easy pickins during the dark hours.  The beetles are attracted to lights and somehow, I suppose through being clumsy, they end up on their back under street or other bright lights with legs hopelessly up in the air trying to right themselves.  Crickets like to or just naturally navigate walls and can be easily picked up by hand with a bright flashlight shining on them.  So I carry an open, empty milk jug that will hold them without chance of escape and don't have to fiddle with a lid and put it in the freezer or fridge to kill or slow them down until ready to cook.

So far I have tried these particular bugs cooked two ways.  Fried crispy in a little butter with soy and Cavender's Greek Seasoning and boiled with the same ingredients then added to ramen noodles.  Now if you have never tried Cavender's, you don't know what you're missing!  It's great on all kinds of meat and bugs are meat, just in a different package than what most are used to.  Fried crispy is so far and by far my favorite method of cooking and eating bugs.  Boiled gives a good flavor but leaves the exoskeleton and legs chewy for lack of a better term, not my favored texture.  I would rather be able to crunch the whole bug up and not have to deal with thinking about that indestructable wing or leg getting caught in my mouth or throat somewhere haha!  Some will remove these parts while I don't particularly want to go into all the preparation time.

Another method of nocturnal bug harvesting is with a funnel set into a jar with light as an attractant. 

Nothing new really as entomologists and entomophagists alike have been doing similar for many years with lights and panels in various configurations.  In some countries they have pools of soapy water set below to catch and drown the bugs for harvesting and selling in the street markets.  You just never know for sure though what kind of bugs will end up in the jar or pool. 

So get up at dark-thirty, grab a light and cleaned plastic jug and go get yourself some tasty bugs!  It's a great time just to get out and walk about but don't be wandering into or on private property without permission.  There are plenty of places to harvest bugs at night without getting in trouble or being mistaken for a prowler or worse.  It's also a good idea to keep an eye out for other nocturnal critters out hoping to make a meal of some bugs such as skunks!  If you see one just calmly run like mad haha! 

On a seriously cautionary note, harvesting any insects from the wild is really not 100% safe.  I'm "fairly" certain the insects I've collected and eaten have not been exposed to pesticides or whatever else but again I can't be positive.  Harvesting outside of controlled, farm reared conditions is at one's own risk.  Personally I will be really glad when my own rearing efforts show some gain enough for me to partake of my own labor, knowing where my Gourmet Bugs came from and what they ate!   

    

Grasshoppers For Dinner!

Before I get into the meat of this article I would like to share a new Entomophagy Blog by Joshua Allen, a newcomer as am I to this interesting way of life.  Welcome Joshua!

Today I ate grasshoppers, eight of them which were caught by hand and one bonus small brown beetle.  Wasn't quite sure how to prepare them so I just pulled off the wings after a short boil and fried them crispy along with a tiny bit of unsalted butter, dash of soy sauce and a sprinkling of Cavenders Greek Seasoning.  So far and by far, the most delicious insects I have eaten to date.  I just had a feeling I was going to love grasshoppers and that little brown beetle wasn't bad at all either!  Think it was a young Junebug by pictures I've seen.

The weather has been very warm for March and the locusts are numerous already but small.  Won't be long and we'll be testing the trap, using the sweep net and filling the grasshopper cage over the wheat grass & oats patch.

Having finally tasted some hopper, I'm definitely going to find a way to raise them with success!

Principles and Procedures for Rearing High Quality Insects, John C. Schneider

Times such as this I wish I had paid better attention in school and gotten some further education.  At 49 years of age, tech challenged and short term memory impaired, it seems a daunting challenge to now try and get some formal education in Entomology, distance online or otherwise.  The distance online courses require quite alot of pre-education and seeming to me to be useless courses such as English and two in different foreign languages!  Do bugs care what language one speaks?  It might be helpful though when meeting up with like minded folks from other countries, especially since Entomophagy is currently practiced and studied moreso by those outside of the USA.

Always seem to get what I need though and right on time!  A fella liked my Facebook page, Gourmet Bugs & Bait a few weeks ago.  I thought his name, Alfredo Llecha, seemed familiar and in just a few minutes research I realized who he was as I had just the day before read an online article about him working with BSFL at Mississippi State University.  A native of Spain, Alfredo has come to the USA to share his expertise in insect rearing while specializing in various aspects of the Black Soldier Fly.

Alfredo and I exchanged a few messages and emails concerning BSFL habits and rearing methods and he ultimately recommended a book, Principles and Procedures for Rearing High Quality Insects, John C. Schneider.

MSU offers a yearly workshop based on this book at a fee of $1,050.  I'm going to try to get in on the 2013 schedule being as 2012 is all booked up.  Until then, the $75 total for the book does not seem overly expensive for the amount of knowledge one will gain from it, especially one such as myself who knows actually little to nothing about insect rearing and is having to learn as I go.  It will likely save me alot of time, money and frustration by not having to trial & error experiment so much!

I'm thankful for new friends who seem to be brought into my path just when I need them.  I had no idea when beginning this journey into Entomophagy of all the interesting and talented people I would meet and certainly had no idea that some of the top people in this field in the country and around the world would take interest into my projects. 

Small town, big world, lots of bugs.  On we go! :)

Trial Grasshopper Cage

If you've been keeping up with my randomness, I posted some drawings awhile back of a concept outdoor setup for raising grasshoppers.  Here's the cage I finally was able to salvage enough parts to build.  Not as long as I hoped for but well enough for a trial...

Just a bit over four feet long.  All side dimensions are close to two feet.  Nothing hardly is exact in anything I do since I try to get the most space out of available materials. 

One thing I did that doesn't make perhaps the very best use of available space is that the side screen panels are on the inside rather than out of the frame.  They are flush with the mesh bottom edges so that there is no chance of frass buildup anywhere in the cage bottom.  All frass will exit as it's produced and fertilize the wheat grass and alfalfa patch I'm planting tomorrow to grow up into the mesh bottom to feed the hoppers I will catch soon.

Not sure how many it will hold and/or support.  Will just load it until it looks like it won't support any more, either by noting feed consumption or otherwise conditions that will say to stop.  Planning on a larger grass plot than the cage so if it's a lack of feed issue I can simply cut some extra and put in the cage as required. 

This will go under a clear plastic tent-type structure to keep the rain off  the cage as much as possible.  The slope of my yard will ensure any rain will naturally water the grass. No shortage of that so far this year! 

Gathering & Raising Woodlice, AKA Roly Poly, Pillbug

One hundred woodlice added to a five gallon plastic pail with shredded leaf mulch...

Yes they are edible and have a delicious flavor and aroma when cooked, like seafood but they live on land in and feed on damp rotting wood, leaves and commonly inhabit compost piles. My best flavor comparison is that they taste very similar to boiled crawfish.  The name "Pillbug" is said to have been given to them by old timers who used to eat them raw for stomach problems or acid indigestion and that due to the calcium content woodlice contain.

The bucket has a heat melted/fused on stainless steel #40 mesh bottom.  More of an experiment than anything in trying to raise these outside.  I'll keep it in the shade under the roof eve so any rain can freely drip into it and any excess drains out through the bottom.  They like it wet but not flooded or so I read.

Today I looked under the plastic bag which the original leaves were mulched from, it sitting in the back lot of my work office, still about half full of leaves.  There were many woodlice there among the bits of leaf and gravel and so I easily gathered up a hundred to add and will gather another hundred tomorrow and could probably gather another hundred the day after.  Found it rather easy to scoop them up with a plastic spoon and dump them into a glass baby food jar they can't climb out of.

So getting these bugs to gather for harvest is easy. Just lay something out they can get under that is in a damp, shady area with some shredded leaves or grass clippings under for a food source.  One could easily maintain several square feet of boards laying out in the yard somewhere to continually harvest these if they wished.  I just want to see how they will do in the mesh bottom bucket that will hopefully keep out other things that commonly inhabit the same areas like centipedes, black widow spiders and those creepy looking things you don't know what they are unless you happen to be an entomologist haha! 

My hopes are they will reproduce and convert the entire bucket of leaf mulch into whatever it is they do.  I plan to get around one thousand in the bucket and just keep it moist and shaded, see what happens.  After a time I'll dump it into a bin and see how many happen to be there.

Arkansas Jumper Worms

Brought some worms from work home a few years ago in some compost.  My home was built on some very poor, acidic soil type land that used to be a pine tree thicket and there was not a worm to be found. Now they are all over my yard and have changed the entire composition of the soil here for the better.

I'm not sure of the correct taxonomy for this jumper worm we have here locally so I'm not going to say it's a particular one. It resembles photo's I've seen of those called the Alabama and Georgia Jumpers but its habits do not exactly match up with what I've read, like they say...

"Jumpers are very similar to African Night Crawlers. Both are warm climate species with similar temperature tolerances and breeding rates. Both are very muscular with a snake-like motion; very quick to burrow back into the ground.
What differentiates the Jumpers is that they are an endogeic species. They build extensive lateral burrows. They also prefer compacted soil (including clay) and can burrow deep to avoid cold temps. For this reason they are claimed to be great for aerating hard garden soil."

I was disturbing these monsters in the surface soil just under the grass back in Winter while transplanting garlic.  Though we were having mild days, the nights were still freezing or below and the ground was very cold as I was pulling weed roots and such while these worms went nuts.  They are very muscular like the quote describes and thus the nickname "jumper" is given because that's what they do when distrubed, jump around wildly and they're hard to get a hold on haha!  Here's a photo I took today of one on the driveway after a big rain event...

That's a common sized one.  My boot is exactly a foot long so there ya go, a foot long worm, big round as a pencil.  Wouldn't take too many of these bad boys to make a meal eh?  I've been looking at some worm recipes but give me a break, I just recently ate my first insects. Maybe someday. :)

I don't believe these are burrowing worms.  They are commonly found locally in yard debris piles and they really like rotting wood and leaves.  Rake the leaves back on a shady creekbank in some places I know and these will make the ground seem alive with all their thrashing about!  And talk about composting...these worms put every other worm I have ever personally raised to shame and they reproduce just as well as any. 

Trick is though, they do not seem to like plastic containers at all.  They will do well in an outdoor pile in all climates if kept moist but just try to keep them in a tub or bucket and good luck haha!  I put a bunch in a five gallon bucket once and a weighted window screen over the top.  The next day there wasn't a single worm left in the bucket!  I thought somebody came along and stole them until I saw another batch make the escape right through the openings in a standard window screen.  When doing so, they can make themselves fit through. Don't ask me how but they can also squeeze under a door seal and come right in the house or into the garage if they are fleeing alot of rain which they don't seem to like much.  One would think it would cause all their insides to exit their posterior!

I was at one time going to send some of these worms to an online friend who knew somebody that could positively identify them.  We sort of lost touch somehow and it never happened.  Perhaps someday I'll learn exactly what species they are.  Until then, they will be Arkansas Jumpers.

Regulated Insects USDA/APHIS

Ask and ye shall receive. So I asked USDA/APHIS a question several weeks ago and had given up on getting any response...

Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.
If this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may reopen it within the next 7 days.
Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

 Subject

Where can I find regulations about raising and selling insects meant for human consumption, entomophagy?

 Discussion Thread

 Response Via Email (USDA/APHIS)
03/19/2012 03:12 PM

Regulations of interest to entomophagists depend on the species and the actions of the insect producer/seller.
USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) requires plant pest transport permits for movement of regulated pests. These are pests identified by APHIS or stakeholders as having the potential to cause serious economic or environmental damage in the United States.

You can find a link to regulated insects at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/plant_imports/regulated_pest_list.shtml

Here is a direct link to the pdf... http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/plant_imports/downloads/RegulatedPestList.pdf

APHIS’ Veterinary Services requires permits for the movement of insects that affectanimals or vector animal diseases.   For more information on APHIS permits, we suggest that you contact the APHIS Technical Assistance Center at 1-866-794-2827 or via e-mail at ePermitsHelp@aphis.usda.gov.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would have oversight of insects prepared as processed food.  The address is FDA, Health HHS, 10903 New Hampshire Ave, Silver Spring, Maryland 20993-0002, and the telephone number is 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332).

The Centers for Disease Control requires permits for the movement of insects that affect man or vector human diseases. For more information: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
1600 Clifton Rd., Atlanta,Georgia 30333, and the phone number is 1-800-CDC-INFO
(800-232-4636).

 Customer By Web Form
02/16/2012 06:57 PM

Where can I find regulations about raising and selling insects meant for human consumption, entomophagy?