5 replies to this topic

[OhNoNotAgain]

I've been trying to figure out how edible Veromessor is, because frankly I have too many workers swarming the outworld (yes they destroyed the Fluon) and if they produce up to 650 new workers a day as a full size colony..... Anyway, in the process of trying to figure out their edibility, I've come across some interesting information about eating ants....

 

I've already seen edible weaver ants for sale, such as Oecophylla and Polyrhachis. Weaver ants are sometimes used as pest control as well. It still impresses me that they are so common you can buy a bag of winged queens as a snack.  (Edible (dead) weaver ants for sale can be found at this entomophagy store: https://www.ediblein...le-weaver-ants/(alates) and https://www.edibleinsects.com/product/gourmet-black-ants/ )

 

Meanwhile, if you have excess Atta queens, I guess you could consider cooking their gasters for a tasty and nutritious treat (hormigas culonas): "Also known as Sompopos [or Zompopos], the flying [Atta] queens are collected in Guatemala and roasted on a comal with salt and lime juice. They are said to taste something like buttery pork rinds. Because of their territorial nature, flying ant queens are sometimes pitted against each other, cock-fight style." ( https://edibug.wordp...edible-insects/Also https://antiguadailyphoto.com/2014/05/18/meet-the-giant-guatemalan-winged-leaf-cutter-ant-zompopo/ ) And there's so many that: " Each spring, [ant] harvesters send truckloads of the queens to hungry buyers across Colombia...." ( http://www.bbc.com/t...-us-live-longer )

 

And yes, of course, we all know or could guess that honeypot ants are edible (Melophorus and Camponotus in Australia, and Myrmecocystus in the Americas).

 

I'm REALLY not sure about this next one, in many ways, esp. as ascorbic acid IS vitamin C and that's what prevents scurvy and I thought it was formic acid that made ants acidic? But anyway:

"We are always combating what we call carpenter ants, right? And I'd always thought they're called carpenter ants because of what they eat. Well, it turns out that in New England in the 1700s, carpenters would eat those ants because they thought they were warding off scurvy—they thought they were getting citric acid. So it's a lemony kind of flavor, which they get from ascorbic acid. It kind of reminds me a little bit of wild sumac." ( https://www.vice.com...-cook-bugs-ants )

 

(Oh and not ants, but apparently termites taste like bacon. Several sites mentioned this, including the one above: "When termite queens are flying out in the tropics, locals set up these sheets. When the insects hit the sheet, it knocks off their wings and they fall into a bucket. Then you have a bucket full of termites, which have a mild, bacon-like flavor.")

 

Well, I dunno about the common Liometopum occidentale, but in Mexico some people harvest Lio brood as delicious luxury "caviar," escamol. I will say I had admired the massive brood pile my Lio colony has, and while I don't know if it tastes as nice as Liometopum apiculatum Mayr or Liometopum luctuosum (the sources of escamol), it's sort of tempting to find out. https://www.atlasobs...oles-ant-caviarand   https://roadsandking...-of-the-desert/

 

Speaking of Mexico, here's a list of threatened ants eaten in one area of Mexico. Original table here: https://ethnobiomed....9-2-51/tables/1

 

Hymenoptera Formicidae Liometopum apiculatum Mayr *     Myrmecocystus melliger Wesm. *     Myrmecocystus mexicanus Wesm. *     Camponotus sp.     Pogonomyrmex barbatus Smith

 

Speaking of Pogonomyrmex.... Apparently they are used as a traditional hallucinogen (do NOT try this at home - Pogonomyrmex are highly venomous and being stung by them can kill a person).

https://ringtailcats...fornia-indians/

First a quantity of Pogonomyrmex are ingested. "The ant doctor then acts as if they are leaving momentarily, then sneaks up behind and pokes the ribs hard to startle the youth, provoking the ants to all sting his insides at once, causing the youth to pass out (Groark 1996)."

 

Well, one sad factoid is that overconsumption can in fact cause certain ant populations to become threatened. Maybe we will find a way to turn RIFAs and Argentines into a great source of food... certainly this year has me thinking a lot more about sustainable and apocalypse-suitable foods.... And if no one's eaten Veromessor before, I guess I might have to experiment.

 

[TechAnt]

Yeah these ants are all too valuable for me lol..I would never eat Atta, they are precious.

Edited by TechAnt, September 14 2020 - 9:35 AM.

[Antkid12]

Interesting!

[Kaelwizard]

Maybe we can sell mashed up RIFA as chicken.

[ANTdrew]

I ate the Atta queens as a kid growing up in Guatemala.

[OhNoNotAgain]

I ate the Atta queens as a kid growing up in Guatemala.

 

BTW I debated using words like "weird" because to me something like, say, fermented soybeans aren't actually weird at all, so apologies if that sort of grated .... But that's cool that you ate them as a kid. I had little idea how common eating ants, including alates and brood, was around the world. In this primarily North American formiculture world, alates are something rare and brood is something to be zealously protected and watched over, so it's kind of an interesting change of pace to consider them as food. (Of course, in my case, it's the yuckier workers I need to get rid of....) Going from rejoicing over a few fat queens in the mail with large gasters and freaking when one arrives dead... to thinking of trucks hauling nothing but queens for consumption purposes... is quite a culture shock for me.

Edited by OhNoNotAgain, September 14 2020 - 10:50 AM.