the OTHER white(?) meat

[revontulet]

Time to separate the real self reliants from the wannabes

http://www.stalkingthewild.com/why_not_bugs.htm

not really, but I thought they would make a really nice part of my animals diet. I could feed them to my cats,dogs and chickens-even horses,goats,ect.
I'm wondering how to make bug traps to set around the woods.
Anyone a bug tracker/trapper?

on the survival ring
http://www.hollowtop.com/finl_html/finl.html

[Grandmotherbear]

My son and I ate grasshoppers after removing the legs and toasting. It was part of the wilderness survival training. I wouldn't recommend it as a steady diet near any farming areas where large amounts pesticides are used.

[bearkiller]

Fortunately not where I live. But not many years ago I was down in Imperial Valley during "Cricket Season." All that was required was a manure scoop and a few garbage gans and you would have chicken feed and fish feed for many months. Unbelievable how abundant they were.

As for feeding me and my bride, Thanks, but we have other ABUNDANT sources of protein to put in the ole feedbag.

bearkiller

[RANDEL]

from time to time i've seen descriptions in old mother earth news and organic gardening about devices that capture bugs in quantity. they always seem to involve a light to attract the bugs at nite, and as i recall a fan to blow the bugs into a sack. but any non-toxic trap'd work. if u could lure the bugs and then drown em then pour the water off.

mostly folks wanna trap bugs to feed to the chickens. to me the idea has a lot of merit and i plan to try it. one more way of diverting a bit of natures bounty into (eventually) one's own stomach or pocket-book.

[gobug]

This is a topic that has interested me for years.

I found a book at the library that was full of recipes. A web search a long time ago turned up a bulletin board with favorite recipes. I guess it isn't too surprising that one of the most common favorites is MEAL WORMS.

You just heat up the frying pan, add a little oil and put in the meal worms. Keep turning them until they brown and get crispy on the outside. Crispy on the outside juicy inside. They are "great" in banana bread. (none for me, thank you)

You can raise bugs instead of trying to capture them.

[Shrek]

Worms make a tasty sauce for potatoes. :haha:

The Food Insects Newsletter
http://www.hollowtop.com/finl_html/finl.html

In case you think you might ever have to.

.....Alan.

[Pestilence]

I've heard that you can trap grasshoppers by placing a wool blanket in a grassy area overnight. The barbs on their legs get caught in the fibers, then in the morning you can just pick them off.
I used to have fun trying to catch them one at a time with my bare hands, to use for fishing. I got pretty good at it, but the work is definitely not worth the payoff.

[revontulet]

Perhaps if you had dipped them in chocolate, the fish would have bit?

I think it's funny how eating bugs in other countries is normal. Maybe it's because their bugs are as big as rabbits?

How are the bugs down south?

Shrek, what's your receipe for worm sauce?

[joan from zone six]

heard about folks who burn a low wattage light all night about 12" off the ground in their duck pens - claim a reduction if feed requirements with no bug harvesting or cultivating required

[Explorer]

Reports from early pioneers to the Great Salt Lake are of Utah state the local Indians, Utes, harvested grasshoppers that had flown into the Salt Lake, drowned and washed ashore on the opposite bank completely naturally preserved in salt. Huge amounts by the reports, food for all winter.

Originally Posted by joan from zone six

heard about folks who burn a low wattage light all night about 12" off the ground in their duck pens - claim a reduction if feed requirements with no bug harvesting or cultivating required

I've done this in my chicken pen. Hung a bug zapper with the bottom pan out so the dead ones would fall to the ground. The summer nights when the mole crickets would be flying there'd be a couple of hundred dead on the ground in the morning. I was concerned the chickens were going to kill themselves gorging on them.

.....Alan.

[revontulet]

Hey cool, thanks for that idea Joan/Alan, now I have a good use for my bug zapper!

Lots of interesting factoids. Thanks gang