Found some grubs and ate them with photos

Jan 18, 2005
298
0
52
Bucks
HI all.

I am just posting this here as it over on brit blades but I thought you lot may want to have a read on it as it may (or may not) be right up your street.

I was out in the shop today putting in a new window or shutters as the old one has rotted away and the wind blew it out a while back. I had been clearing out some of the old junk and as I was fitting the window I moved some 1’’x2’’ softwood batons. To my surprise they were stuck together. I thought it must have been some glue or something as they were WELL stuck but I could not see properly what it was as it was all covered in cobwebs and the like. I took it out side for later inspection. The two boards were well stuck together buy something I thought was a wasps nest or something so I slowly pulled it apart.
Here is what I found!
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Big grubs, lots of them all living together is some weird hive thing all made from super tough web like stuff. They are all about 15-20mm long and bright yellow with dark brown heads and feet just like a caterpillar.
This is what they were munching on.

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They have only been eating the surface of the softwood. The bit they seemed to like the best was the bit leaning against the other bit of wood. The other bit of wood was the same kind but they did not want to eat that on for some reason.

This is their colony
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Its quite big and each one of the tunnel like things has a hungry yellow grub sitting inside, their must be at least a hundred of them. I have got their dinner and made it into part of the frame for the window.

We concluded that they were house long horn beetle larvae

In the course of the thread Rapidboy who is a regular here said "You know what bush tucker man would say - "they taste like runny scrambled eggs"
Get stuck in Mozzy "


So I took his advice :)
I was going to take to long to get them all out of their cases so I just tried a couple.

I had them cold and raw, grabed a couple out of their cases (I assume the ones in the photos knew what was coming and legged it) when you bite into them they pop, not a gentle pop but a right crack in the mouth, they are cold and very wet, the juice on the inside was very runny and had very little texture to it. It did how ever have a crunchy bit as well, I assume this was the jaws and head of the said morsle. One thing i did not expect what that the skin is quite tough a little bit like the skin bit you get from the inside of and orange, you know the translucent stuff with no juice in. The taste was pretty plain and very mild with a slight eggy white taste but it finished on, you guessed it wood and a little pine.

It was not unpleasent at all ecept for the psycological thing in the head of " I am eating grubs" but the taste was not bad at all.

If pushed came to shove and you had no other source of protine out there, these grubs..... put them on the menu.
 

Aaron

Need to contact Admin...
Dec 28, 2003
570
0
42
Oxford/Gloucs border
I am not a fussy eater but I think that I shall give it a miss Lord Farqhar :yuck: You must come to one of meetups - proper grub there! A book I read on the Australian aboriginies claimed that rather than eating them whole as is often depicted, they usually bite off the head from witchity grubs. Would possibly make the culinary experience a little more pleasant.
 
Jan 18, 2005
298
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52
Bucks
If no one tries these thing how will ypu ever know? We regularly eat the latation of large herbavors that has gone off mixed with boiled chicken embreos mixed in with various tubers and bulbs. No one would be eating these things if no one had ever tried them out.
 

spamel

Banned
Feb 15, 2005
6,833
21
48
Silkstone, Blighty!
Very true, but I like to eat foetuses! Bugs though! :yikes:

Saying that, somebody posted about crickets in a chile stylee, sort of jerked or something and they were supposedly quite nice. I don't think I'd go out of my way to eat bugs, but you cannot ignore their calorific value in a squeeze. Plus, I eat snails, so what's the difference?
 

xylaria

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I have been tempted to to venture in to world creepy crawly cuisine. I know i have eaten mushroom maggots but not on purpose. i not sure I would go for wood maggots but I know when i found some stag bettle larvae I was tempted. Wood lice look like they would tasty.

I have one question, had do you cook woodlice? they look like they would be nice fried but they would run around the pan until they died, and I can't bop them on the head with a preist cos thats silly. So what do you do with a box of live woodlice to make dinner?
 

Toadflax

Native
Mar 26, 2007
1,783
5
65
Oxfordshire
I have one question, had do you cook woodlice? they look like they would be nice fried but they would run around the pan until they died, and I can't bop them on the head with a preist cos thats silly. So what do you do with a box of live woodlice to make dinner?

Never tried them, and not sure I'd want to in any case, but I found this quote: "Like most crustaceans woodlice are quite edible, and are advocated by many "survival enthusiasts" as an alternative food. Some even suggest that for seafood sauce the flavour of woodlice is superior to that of prawns."

Or try this page of woodlouse recipes: http://www.geocities.com/~gregmck/woodlice/recipes.htm. It tells you how to kill them and includes recipes such as woodlouse scones! :eek:

Or if you want to expand your cuisine: http://www.eatbug.com/


Geoff
 
Jan 18, 2005
298
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52
Bucks
Are you still with us Lord F? No tummy ache or anything?


Sorry i was away shopping at morrisons but i am fine. Grubs are fine to eat as long as what they are living on is fine to eat but I think I will get most of my groceries from the super market not the wood pile :)
 

Salix

Nomad
Jan 13, 2006
370
1
55
Bolton
Im not so much interested in the grubs...........................what did the photos taste like !:Wow:

Mark
 

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