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

Centipedes vs. Millipedes

Here we have two bugs that people often get mixed up. I am here to clear the confusion! The first one (on your left) is a Centipede and the second one (on your right) is a Millipede. Next we will get into a detailed description of their differences.

Centipedes have long antennae, Millipedes have short ones. Centipedes are predatory and feed on other bugs, Millipedes are scavengers and feed on organic matter. Centipedes cannot roll into a ball, Millipedes can. Centipedes are fast runners, Millipedes are slow walkers. Centipedes have one pair of legs per body segment, Millipedes have two pairs per segment (except for the first three segments which have only one pair each). A Centipede's back legs trail behind the body, a Millipede's do not. Centipedes can bite and have a poison to paralyze their prey, Millipedes do not. Centipedes have a flattened body, Millipedes are more rounded. Hope that clears things up!


Sources:

http://insects.about.com/od/identifyaninsect/a/centiormilli.htm

http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/centipedemillipede012.shtml

Snail Sex!

Has anyone else noticed that snails seem to always come out while it's raining? Has anyone else noticed that while it's raining seems to be the only time you will see two snails getting it on? Well...I hope I'm not the only one.

Today it is raining where I live and I was sitting at dinner with my parents wondering what to post about today and I was reminded of the times when I was a wee tot and I would go outside in the rain and to collect snails and all too often would find myself picking up two of them mating. And then, as I was sitting there eating my cheese enchilada, I was wondering; why is it that so many snails come out and mate while it's raining? So I came home and looked it up!
The first thing you need to know is that snails need plenty of water to be active, otherwise they dry out and die. When snails cannot get enough water they go into a hibernation- like state called estivation until there is more moisture in it's environment. If you pick up snails often, like I do, you may have noticed snails in this state before. They generally are stuck to a leaf and when you pick them up you have to sort of peel their shell off of the surface they are on and if you look inside their shell they are hidden deep within it and have a film over them. Most people that see snails in this state think that they are dead, this is not the case, all you need to do to wake one up is throw it in a bucket of water. It will wake up and climb out, and NO IT WILL NOT DROWN.

The next thing you need to know is that snails find a mate by following a slime trail. Given all of the above information, the reason we see so many mating snails while it's raining is because more snails have come out of estivation, due to the moisture in the air, and are now active, resulting in more snail trails (slime doesn't wash off easily in rain or water, it makes it stickier).

One other interesting thing to know about snail reproduction is that almost all snails are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female reproductive organs, making it easier to find a mate. They can also self- fertilize.


Sources:

http://www.petsnails.co.uk/faq.html#biblio

http://lhsfoss.org/fossweb/teachers/materials/plantanimal/landsnails.html

Guess what this is!

Any guesses what this pretty insect is? You may be surprised but this is a type of cockroach! Yes, that's right, not all of them are disgusting looking! Some types, like this adult Bush Cockroach, are actually rather lovely. The Bush Cockroach is a native of New Zealand and is part of the suborder Blaberoidea which contains some of the most beautiful types of cockroaches.

Sources:

http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_cockroaches/index.html

http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/research/biosystematics/invertebrates/invertid/bug_details.asp?Bu_Id=260

Some Bug Humor

So my boyfriend posted this on his Facebook today, of course I cracked up then decided to look up the facts behind the joke, so here they are. Cockroaches do indeed have a higher tolerance of radiation than most animals. Radiation exposure is measured in rads. Around 1,000 rads is lethal to a human. To kill a German cockroach (the most tolerant of radiation of all the cockroach types) with radiation it would take about 6,400 rads . However, there are other insects that can even top the amount of radiation a cockroach can tolerate! The flour beetle can withstand up to around 100,000 rads and a type of wasp called the Habrobracon can survive as high as 180,000 rads! The main reason that cockroaches and other insects are more tolerant of radiation than humans is that cells are most susceptible to radiation while they are dividing. Human and other mammal cells are constantly dividing, while insect cells usually only divide during molting. Another thing to take into account is that there is more to a nuclear explosion than radiation, there are also high levels of heat. The cockroaches would have to be far enough away from the explosion that the heat wouldn't cook them.

And now to address the second part of the joke; what the fuck is in Raid? The active ingredients in Raid are various toxins that target the nervous system such as Tetramethrin and Pyrethrin (Pyrethrin acts as more of a repellent but in high enough doses or with the use of Piperonyl Butoxide, which prevents the roach from metabolizing the toxins and recovering, it can cause death.)


Sources:
http://www.glutathionediseasecure.com/cockroaches-and-radiation.html

http://insects.about.com/od/roachesandmantids/f/cockroaches-nuclear-bomb.htm

http://www.misconceptionjunction.com/index.php/2010/11/cockroaches-would-not-survive-an-extreme-nuclear-fallout/

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5183091_raid-bug-killer-work_.html

Greetings!!

Hi! I'm CJ, and among many other things, I am a total bug enthusiast! When I was younger I wanted to be an entomologist for the longest time and I used to keep terrariums and jars filled with pill bugs, snails, earthworms, ladybugs, various caterpillars, meal worms, beetles, the occasional deformed butterfly, silk worms, silk worm moths, and whatever else I could find in my garden! Sadly, now I am too busy with school to take care of tons of bugs in my garage (and also a bit self conscience about the neighbors seeing me, a college student, searching the garden for bugs like I did when I was a kid) but I am planning on getting my own pet Antilles Pinktoe tarantula very soon, which I will be sure to post about on here! I also intend to post about other bugs I see around, which I will try to identify for everyone as well as provide a bit of hopefully useful information about them! I hope if you are a bug enthusiast, like me, you will follow my blog and possibly collaborate with me for information! And if you are not a bug enthusiast, or maybe you even hate bugs and think they are creepy, I hope my blog is at the very least informative and useful and that maybe it will help you gain a better appreciation and understanding for these fascinating and diverse little critters that live all around us!