Moved!

Hey you guys I have moved this blog to a new site because it is way too difficult to get followers on here and it is no fun posting when you feel like you are talking to yourself! The new URL is

http://cjsbugs.tumblr.com/

If you want to follow me on there that would be fantastic!
THANKS!
-CJ

Update + Glow Worm Video

Hey there everyone! Happy 2012!! Sorry I haven't posted anything in forever. I thought I would have time once I started winter break but then holidays got in the way and all of that so I was super busy. But I am finally not so busy and I will start posting more regularly again. Here is a little movie on glow worms, which I totally love. I may do my next post on them, so think of this as a little introduction courtesy of Discovery Channel videos (by the way I really recommend the full video called: "Planet Earth: Caves"). Hope you all had wonderful holidays!


Sources:

segment:
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/planet-earth-caves-glow-worms.html

Blog Neglecting...

Sorry that I haven't posted anything for over a week. It's the week before finals and I have been busy finishing up projects and studying. Posts should become more regular after I get done with finals, around December 15th. Thanks for your patients!!

-CJ

Bugs for Dinner!

In honor of Thanksgiving, which, yes I know was two days ago, I am going to talk about bugs and insects as a food source! There are more than 1,400 types of edible insects. Though, I admit, I have never purposely eaten a bug, and the thought does indeed gross me out a little, I have read that eating bugs as a source of protein has many advantages, especially compared to eating more mainstream meats like beef, lamb, pork and chicken.

One of the advantages to eating insects is nutritional value. Generally, insects have more protein, less calories and less fat than equivalent amounts of beef. Some insects, such as grasshoppers, have only about 5 grams less protein than the equivalent amount of beef and about three times more calcium than beef. Other insects, like crickets, have less than half the calories of beef and about a quarter of the fat, however crickets have about half the protein of beef. The insect with the highest amount of protein is the giant water beetle, and close behind is the dung beetle.

In my opinion, the biggest advantages of insects as a food source are the environmental and economic benefits. Insects in general are much easier to raise than livestock. They have a much higher feed to meat ratio than livestock, meaning, it takes much less feed to produce insect meat. For every ten kilograms of feed you can produce between seven and nine kilograms of insect meat compared to only one kilogram of beef for the same amount of feed. This saves a lot of money and also is much more sustainable since less space is needed to produce crops to make animal feed. Raising insects also takes up much less space than raising livestock.

According to my sources, many insects are also not bad tasting and can be incorporated into food in many ways. You can even dry insects, crush them up, and make flour out of them. One source said that male bee larvae tasted similar to honey bacon and another said that Giant Water beetles have a flavor similar to scallops when fried or roasted. One of my uncle's also once said that tiny carpenter ants, which my little cousins were feeding to him live while laughing hysterically, tasted like pepper (yes, my family is weird.)

Still grossed out? Bugs are used as a food source in many parts of the world and have been since the beginnings of our species. There are even references to eating bugs in the Bible (locusts and honey). Though the practice of eating bugs, called entomophagy, is seen as disgusting in the U.S., we have all eaten a substantial amount of bugs without knowing it. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows for a certain amount of insects in food, for example, tomato sauce can have 30 fly eggs per 100 grams and chocolate can have up to 60 insect parts per 100 grams. Also, during the average lifetime, a person consumes about seventy insects and ten spiders while sleeping.

Many see bugs as the food source of the future. One U.S. company, called Entom Foods, is trying to get Americans to seriously consider eating bugs and aims to introduce them into Western culture in ways that we can more easily accept them. For example they are currently trying to find a way to make processed bug meats. They intend to use bugs that are already farmed commercially to feed people's pets, such as crickets, grasshoppers and meal worms. If you are eager and want to try bugs for yourself, there are many recipes online and in some of my links below (the second link is best for recipes and preparation). As a general rule of thumb please try to avoid brightly colored bugs which are often poisonous, and play it safe and cook them before you eat them because some bugs carry diseases or contain parasites. There are always exceptions to rules so please, please, please do your research first and DO NOT just go out in your garden and start munching on bugs. Personally, after all I have read about it, I am very intrigued and intend to try out eating bugs. I will be sure to do follow-up posts about these experiences to let you all know how it goes. Until then bon appetit!


Sources:

http://news.discovery.com/animals/edible-insects-getting-to-the-good-stuff-111122.html

http://www.manataka.org/page160.html

http://webecoist.com/2009/07/07/eco-friendly-protein-edible-bugs/

http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/edible-bug1.htm

http://thatgirlisfunny.com/2011/03/ever-eaten-beetle-studies-show-grasshoppers-provide-more-protein-than-beef/

http://www.rusticgirls.com/animals/bug-facts.html

Find Your State Insect!

So I went through the trouble of making a special table of all the state insects for all of you who do not live in California. Some states do not have state insects and I skipped over those ones. Also, I did not include state butterflies or anything like that, only the official state insects (though, some of these ARE butterflies). I also tried to provide pictures but the whole thing is pretty small. If you left click the image it will show up bigger. Interestingly enough, the most popular state insect seems to be the honeybee. Fifteen different states have chosen it as their insect.

Defining Bug

I would quickly like to clarify my use of the word "bug". There are many definitions of bug. We could probably debate about what exactly a bug is all day. In this blog I am defining the word bug very loosely to include insects, arachnids, land-mollusks, centipedes, leeches, millipedes, worms, etc...

California State Insect

Today, since I live in California, I am going to introduce you to the California State insect, Colias (Zerene) eurydice, commonly known as the Dog Faced Butterfly ! The one in the top photo is a female and the one on the bottom is a male. California was the first state to pick a state insect (cause we are awesome like that). The larva (caterpillars) only eat false indigo, the adults are known for being very fast fliers and like lots of flowers including Monardellas, Butterfly Mints, Blue Sages, California Fuchsia, and Woolly Blue Curls.


Sources:

http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/lepidopt/pieridae/dogfacm.htm

http://www.laspilitas.com/butterflies/Butterflies_and_Moths/California_Dog-face/California_Dog-face.html