# Eat June Bugs?! -- For real?



## PrairieBelle22 (Nov 17, 2006)

Forerunner posted in the above sticky, Food Revolution, about eatting June Bugs. Really? Are you serious or were you pulling our collective leg?

I have noticed that my dogs do like them. 

Belle


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

You're asking me a direct question ? 



Of course June bugs are edible.

But crickets taste better.

ETA: Grasshoppers aren't bad, either.

_*NEVER*_ eat a stink bug.

Just don't.


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## Txsteader (Aug 22, 2005)

Forerunner said:


> _*NEVER*_ eat a stink bug.
> 
> Just don't.


:hysterical: Now who would do a silly thing like that?

:yuck:


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

:indif:


It was on the backside of a black raspberry that happened to be one of many that I ate, right off the bramble, that fine sunny late teenage afternoon.....and I wasn't paying quite enough attention to each berry, I thus discovered.



_*NAS-*_*ty*.

:grit:



The first cricket incident was _much_ more rewarding.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

We are spoiled in America. In some parts of the world, they eat every edible part of any animal. And in parts of Asia they do eat bugs. It's protein.


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

I'll never forget stepping on a black ground beetle in the cellar and seeing a worm emerge from its carcass. The worm was huge compared to the beetle. The beetle was probably looking for water to transition into its final stage of carrying a hairworm where it drowns and the hairworm emerges. 
[YOUTUBE]MKAIYKAh9SU[/YOUTUBE]


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## KIT.S (Oct 8, 2008)

When I was a kid, Dad bought me a can of chocolate covered grasshoppers. Taste like crunchy chocolate... and when is chocolate bad?
I've eaten deep fried grasshoppers as street-food in Thailand. The sauce was really excellent!
And there is a family story of my great-great-something-grandmother playing with the aborigine kids in New Zealand. They turned over a log and found big fat grubs, made a quick fire, roasted them and ate them on the spot. GGGGrandma didn't get to play with the other kids for a while... her mom had a fit.
Kit


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## PrairieBelle22 (Nov 17, 2006)

Ok, Forerunner almost had me onboard with eating a june bug or even a cricket or grasshopper until I watched Doodlemom's video. ick!

Belle


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

June bug larvae (grubs) are much tastier and more nutritious than the adult June bug.


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

Leave the grubs and eat the moles/shrews.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Cabin Fever said:


> June bug larvae (grubs) are much tastier and more nutritious than the adult June bug.


But, CF....... the fiber. It's all about the _fiber_ content, these days. :shrug:


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## plowhand (Aug 14, 2005)

Forerunner said:


> But, CF....... the fiber. It's all about the _fiber_ content, these days. :shrug:


 Collards'll give you all the fiber you need,okra will too. If there are any worms, well you get your meat for free, if you like that kind. I sorta prefer side meat from hogs myself!


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Cabin Fever said:


> June bug larvae (grubs) are much tastier and more nutritious than the adult June bug.


I was going to say the same thing, albeit the grubs are more work to collect (unless you happen to digging up ground anyway).


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Come late May, what with the idiotic things bouncing off the screen door like they do around ten p.m..... I just think it's a shame to waste 'em.

When working in the late spring garden, I deliver the grubs to the chickens, personally.
I find that it builds trust and affinity, in the flock. 
They all come running every time I walk toward the gate. 

So, do any of you felluhs just pop June bug grubs, while gardening, for the flavor ?

Let's just cut to the chase, here.


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## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

I'll feed the bugs to the chickens then eat the eggs or chicken.


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

Feed the moles to the chickens too.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

One of the best June bug dishes I've ever come across was an egg, bug and onion omelette, with home made tangy hot pepper sauce generously splashed over.

Now that's _back country_ cookin', right there. :bouncy:

ETA......and you just don't get that good, crunchy effect with them nasty grubs. :yuck:


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## doodlemom (Apr 4, 2006)

Wow they actually have beetle recipes online.
http://www.manataka.org/page1083.html
http://khiewchanta.com/archives/ingredients/meats-fish-eggs/edible-beetles-manggudchi-1.html


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## PrairieBelle22 (Nov 17, 2006)

This gives a whole new definition to "bugging out"!

Belle


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I've tried June bugs... recently as this spring. Found I still don't care for them. Much prefer them processed into rooster bullets with a little lard.

Rooster bullets > chicken aigs...


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

Forerunner,as a teenager I had almost the exact same experience as you with a stinkbug, except it was blackberries. I could have told you not to try it.


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## NoClue (Jan 22, 2007)

Cabin Fever said:


> June bug larvae (grubs) are much tastier and more nutritious than the adult June bug.


I agree. Having eaten both, grubs are definitely my preference.

Crickets do have a certain _je ne sais quoi_ though, especially in tacos.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Vicker, I just knew someone would come along, who understood. :buds:

We should start a support group.

It was that awful. :sob:


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## DryHeat (Nov 11, 2010)

I've long been a fan of Andrew Zimmern's "Bizarre Foods" show on Travel Channel, so you can see where I'm going, lol. Well, actually, my only real serious gastronomic experiment was after seeing some grubs sauteed up in a Thai or Cambodian stir-fry dish. Simple enough, larvae mixed with a bit of oil and onions, sprouts, garlic, hot peppers, sweet peppers, the usual seasoning suspects. A while back we still had a couple of pet lizards we bought "superworms" (a giant mealworm beetle larva) as food for. So, I cleaned a batch out with a few days of apples and lettuce as the only food source (normally there was dry cat food in their mix so I'd rather have their guts purged of that sauce), rinsed a big handful real good and gave them the ol' Mongolian Barbecue treatment. They were delicious, but I suppose the mix minus the bugs would have tasted about the same, just had less food value. I've seen a segment or two in which the primary item was giant waterbugs and those pique my interest, too, IF in a nice spicy mix, but they'd be squishier and very evident what you were feeding on, like the roasted tarantulas I've seen. 

I recall a stinkbug-on-blackberry experience back many years ago, too, but I think I got it spat out before chomping down, anyway.


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Ducks LOVE june bugs and dung beetles and grubs. I love duck and duck eggs.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

I tweeted this photo out to my followers last week. I snapped the picture at a local international store.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

I'm thinking that if it were a true survival situation and you had trouble getting over the "ish" factor that maybe the best use for june bugs would be to dry them and grind them up and mix them up with flour and use it for any flour based recipe.


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## CocalicoSprings (Mar 12, 2008)

Txsteader said:


> :hysterical: Now who would do a silly thing like that?
> 
> :yuck:


The Chinese intern who stayed here last year claimed that in his country people do eat stink bugs.


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

CocalicoSprings said:


> The Chinese intern who stayed here last year claimed that in his country people do eat stink bugs.


I find that hard to believe. I found the very unpalatable  worst thing I have ever tasted.


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## stamphappy (Jul 29, 2010)

TheMartianChick said:


> I tweeted this photo out to my followers last week. I snapped the picture at a local international store.


A few years ago in my class I did an insect unit. At the end of the unit, I offered these to any children who so desired to try them. The class was comprised of Kindergarten-Third Grade. They all tried them except one child. 

I puchased the exact boxes you show in your post. I was not impressed. They were very dried out and tasted like the dry flavoring that was used on them. There was no 'insect' taste at all. 

If I were to choose my top preference from that experience, it was the mealworms. 

After seeing the beatle video with the worm coming out of it---UGH! I'm not sure I want ANY animal.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

stamphappy said:


> A few years ago in my class I did an insect unit. At the end of the unit, I offered these to any children who so desired to try them. The class was comprised of Kindergarten-Third Grade. They all tried them except one child.
> 
> I puchased the exact boxes you show in your post. I was not impressed. They were very dried out and tasted like the dry flavoring that was used on them. There was no 'insect' taste at all.
> 
> ...


 :yuck: I'm just not that brave...


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