De Wereld van Wageningen

Riding a motorbike to local markets to eat insects.. for my internship I, Joost van Itterbeek, MSc student Biology, went to Laos to research edible insects. In two villages close to the capital city Vientiane I interviewed villagers and joined them into the forest to gather insects. We caught beetles, ants, cicadas and other insects and of course we ate them as well. The people here are very hospitable and are happy to help you when you show an interest in their way of life. If you are interested in eating insects: in Vientiane I found a bar called CCCFolkBar (coffee & crazy crickets) which targets westerners that want to eat insects. There is enough choice… they offer 17 different kinds of insects!

I conducted my research in a rural village (about 30 km from Vientiane) and an urban village (bordering Vientiane). Using a questionnaire I tried to discover how important the gathering, eating and selling of insects is to the local population. I didn’t have any time to learn the language and therefore I took on a young teacher from the National University of Laos to be my interpreter.

Only the rural population gathers edible insects regularly. About 30 different species are gathered from rice paddies, forests, rivers and pools. Which gathering technique is most efficient depends greatly on the biology and ecology of the insects. I was able to study the techniques used for the gathering of insects in the dry period (± February to April). We arranged to meet a villager and went into the forest or searched the rice paddies. Heteroptera for instance, are easily caught using a light weight bamboo stick with a small net tied to the end. This technique does not work for cicadas, which are also gathered from trees. A long bamboo stick with glue applied to its sharpened end is used to catch these insects. Insects are eaten as a snack, as well as for breakfast, lunch or dinner, sometimes they are eaten daily. There is a great variety in recipes used for preparation. Some people spend a lot of time on this work, and it pays off. The gatherers are very knowledgeable about the biology and ecology of these insects, and they know where and at what time of the day they are most easily caught. Edible insects make a good source of food, that also brings in money. A number of people from the village has a market stall in the city. The edible insects are bought from the gatherers daily and sold on the market the next day. You can buy insects on several markets in Vientiane, usually they are already prepared. The price for a portion (100-200 g) of insects is higher than that of a kilo of fruit or vegetables and is even comparable to the price of a piece of meat. The urban population therefore does not eat that many insects. For them it is mainly a popular snack. Local restaurants and bars, but also those in the touristic centre of town, often have crickets on the menu. These are delicious to have with a beer. Many people in the city even breed crickets in their back garden. We found these people through a couple of market stall owners. These people can produce up to 60 kg of crickets a week, and there is no loss, all of it is sold. One of the urban people I interviewed had a tiny cricket nursery in her back garden, purely for her own use. After this internship I can only conclude that edible insects are a basic food for many people, just like any other thing you may eat.