Crickets drawn to the light either slam into the sheet and fall into the water or simply jump into its reflection. On the ground, water fills a rectangular plastic container. The traps are simple: A clear plastic sheet stretches between two upright wood poles, while a long fluorescent light hangs from a cross post.
Image by Rishabh Malik for Atmos/Mongabay. Vendors sell insects at a rest stop near Skuon. “I saw my neighbor put up traps, and then they earned good money, so it encouraged me to do it,” Sopheak says in Khmer above the din of countless insects and toads welcoming the darkness. He has been trapping crickets here for eight years. See related: Eat the insects, spare the lemursĪs night falls over the rice paddies outside Kampong Thom, about 100 miles southeast of Siem Reap, Chu Sopheak turns on the lights attached to his cricket traps. In communities where insects are traditionally eaten, these benefits have been well-known for generations. Mealworms, for example, have a similar unsaturated omega-3 and fatty acid content to fish, and equal protein, vitamin, and mineral counts to both fish and meat. While nutrient levels vary depending on the species, edible insects are generally high in fat, protein, vitamins, fiber, and mineral content.
The FAO estimates that livestock are responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. These insects require 12 times less feed than cattle, and they also produce no methane, a powerful greenhouse gas emitted in great amounts by ruminants like cows. For example, since they are cold-blooded, crickets convert their food into energy far more efficiently than mammals. The health and environmental benefits of these creatures are huge. The most common among them are beetles, caterpillars, bees, wasps, and ants. Image by Rishabh Malik for Atmos/Mongabay.Īccording to the FAO, insects form part of the traditional diets of at least two billion people, and over 1,900 species have been used for food. Chu Sopheak’s cricket traps outside Kampong Thom. The 200-page report is considered one of the most authoritative texts on the consumption of insects for food, also known as entomophagy. According to a landmark 2013 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) entitled “ Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security,” this means that we will need to nearly double food production in the next three decades. People like Wai and eateries like Bugs Cafe, which serves insect skewers, fried spring rolls stuffed with ants, and silkworm and taro croquettes, may seem strange to many Western readers, but they illustrate the importance of finding alternative ways to feed humanity amid climate change and concerns over the environmental and moral impacts of the meat industry.īy 2050, the global population is expected to reach 10 billion people. (A quick note on terminology: While tarantulas and scorpions are arachnids, not insects, I use the latter term for the sake of continuity.) He supplies tarantulas and scorpions to Bugs Cafe, a restaurant located in Siem Reap, the menu of which focuses on insect-based dishes.
“I’ve been hunting for them since I was young, but only commercially for five or six years,” he says in Khmer. On the hunt for tarantulas and scorpions with Chem Wai outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia. If one is home, he grabs a twig to fish it out, snips its fangs or stinger, and drops it into the basket. Once he spots a likely tarantula or scorpion hole, he digs out a scoop of chalky soil. Armed with his spade and a wood basket, he tracks down these arachnids considered terrifying by many in short sleeves and flip flops. Wai knows this scruffy forest, located 20 miles north of Siem Reap and the astonishing ruins of Angkor Wat, like the back of his hand. Listen to this article in audio form here: Chem Wai, a lanky, deeply tanned 53-year-old former soldier, has been collecting wild tarantulas and scorpions for most of his life. LOC NINH DISTRICT, Vietnam - A spade strikes the bone-dry Cambodian dirt with a crunch, and the hunt is on. Vietnam-based reporter Mike Tatarski visited insect hunters, purveyors, and Cricket One, one of the world’s largest cricket farms, to see how they are being caught and cultivated, and wonders about the tradition’s likelihood of spreading to the West.Insect protein is a sustainable, affordable, and nutritious alternative to conventional animal protein.In Southeast Asia and elsewhere, insects have long been an integral part of the human diet, and nowadays scorpions can be ordered on skewers, while ants fill spring rolls and silkworms star in croquettes.
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