Would You Eat Insects If You Were Hungry Enough?
There could come a time when you are stranded in the wilderness. It’s cold. You’re thirsty. You’re hungry.
You might be faced with a choice – eating insects to provide you with a little protein until you find your way out or help comes, or feeling very weak and very hungry. While insects are a staple of some folks’ protein around the world, the thought of eating bugs is disgusting to most Americans.
If you decide you’re going to fill part of that empty space in your stomach with creepy, crawling bugs, there are a few things you should know. First of all, bugs are generally high in protein and some minerals, but they are so small that you’re going to need more than just a few to get rid of those hunger pains.
Second, it’s important to know which bugs to avoid. For example, if you notice a foul odor from a bug after you’ve grabbed it, don’t eat it. If a bug doesn’t even bother trying to avoid you, such as a beetle, let it keep marching on its way. If the bug you have your eye on is brightly colored, like a caterpillar, leave it be because it’s probably toxic. Some beetles, spiders and ants can be eaten, but others shouldn’t be,
so if you don’t know which is which, it’s best to just say no.
So what’s left? Well, if you can capture larvae, grubs, termites or worms, bon appetit. Depending on where you are stranded, earthworms could be the easiest food source to find. If you can hold them down, feel free to eat as many as you want.
Probably the least nauseating bugs to eat, if you can catch them, are grasshoppers, crickets and locusts. They’re high in protein, minerals and nutrients, but again, avoid them if they are brightly colored. And if you see plenty of cockroaches around, have at them.
Eating bugs in the wilderness or desert will not be like eating them in fancy Asian and French restaurants, where you’ll pay an arm and a leg for the bugs’ arms and legs. But if you’re hungry enough, you might find some of them to be a crunchy treat that will hold you over until you find your way home. At that point, even if you’ve been on a healthy diet lately, the golden arches will look pretty inviting. Have you ever eaten an insect when out in the wild? Tell me what that experience was like and whether you’d do it again.
Once in college, I heard you could eat termite larvae. I picked a larva from the ground, pretty sure it was the real deal. I placed it in my mouth and chewed it and swallowed it. It tasted like coffee. It really did.
You know the old joke about finding half a worm in your apple? I found half a millipede in a berry I’d picked. As I recall, the half I ate tasted sweet.
No bugs but I did eat some dog while serving with the US Marines in Korea. It was actually quite tasty and we ate all of it with some great brandy.
Would Rather Carry and Eat Emergency Ration Bars…i.e. Yuppie Food Bars than Eat Disgusting Insects that are more interested in “eating” you from the inside out. No Thanks. Have been thru Real Special Forces Survival Training, eaten Boiled Skunk Cabbage, Etc. Stay Away from Wild Mushrooms and damn Insects… Have had Birch Bark Tea also. Not to mention “local Foreign Foods” of Dubious nature. Remember the MRE’s we used to pack… called them Meals Rejected by Ethiopiaians .
I haven’t need to eat any bugs myself, but I did consume a couple of worms in two bottle of mescal one night. After trying to chew the first one with it squirting whatever it was into the back of my mouth, I swallowed the second one whole. I was not interested in the taste or protein at the time.
I did eat at a “barbecue” in Uganda back in ’86 two months or so after the still-current President Mseveni led his guerilla forces, house wives with brooms and professors with sticks in overthrowing the horrendous Obote/Okello regime.
When I asked what was on the menu, they said, “Don’t ask” as I was the only white guy in Uganda and the only Cowboy in northern Africa, far as I could tell.
I asked them if it was human (an old African joke trend), they just replied, “No”. So I ate it and whatever it was, being as hungry as I was at that point, it tasted pretty good.
When my friends in Kenya found out I was heading on over to Entebbe and Kampala on business, they gave me their sage advice- “If a Ugandan says he wants to have you over for dinner, be sure you know what he’s talking about!” Thanks Idi…
While in the Peace Corps in Africa, I had termites (live), which had a pleasant nutty flavor. We popped them in our mouths, like peanuts! We also had grubs, which were very fleshy and oily, but flavorful. The French volunteers served us monkey brain – soft, fleshy and kind of sweet, and cow tongue, which felt like chewing your own tongue. I did not care for the tripe – intestine – too chewy.
Grasshoppers & locusts’ etc. are MUCH tastier when cooked. Rattlesnakes and their kin are also a viable survival food. Just make sure to avoid the venom glands. They too are best when cooked and skinned. Keep up the good work!!!
Dear Frank,
As you know, we’ve “Been there, done that,” more than a few times. Eating bugs is NEVER our first choice, but we sure recommend it as an alternative to starvation!
We all (as Americans) are spoiled, living in the most food prolific society on the planet. Most people don’t know that there are primitive people in remote sections of 3rd world countries that depend on insects as their primary source of protein. They are hunter/gatherers as a way of life … while we are happily and blessed to be “shoppers.”
Please, encourage more people to read our book; SURVIVAL 101 – HOW TO BUG OUT AND SURVIVE THE FIRST 72 HOURS.
You published it through P4P for me, knowing the importance of the information provided and it is written for those urbanites who are clueless, or those slowly coming to recognize that being thrown into survival mode can happen to anyone in an instant, especially when vacationing, recreating or being caught in a natural disaster.
Buy the way … grasshoppers, crickets and locust are the tastiest when cooked crisp, while scorpions taste a lot like wet shrimp that have been in the sun for a few minutes too long. Earthworms, night crawlers, termites and grubs are high in protein … but gross! !’m sorry, but no matter what all those Asians who eat them daily say, Tarantulas taste like a fuzzy wet dirt clod!!!
God Bless,
Orrin
And the worm turns, yet again. . .
The bugs I have eaten I did not intend to eat but somehow they made it into my mouth. I ride a motorcycle and sometimes I guess it goes with the territory. The flies, so far, have had a sort of sweet taste. Grasshoppers were a little bitter. Smaller bugs kind of swallow down with no taste. I guess I need to keep my moth shut. :)
I’ve eaten a worm in my cabbage with no distinguishing taste and a green beetle in my spinach that crunched and was so bitter I spit it out then couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth for most of the day. I have decided that if I had to to survive I’d eat bugs but otherwise I’m happy to continue the practice only by accident.