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 1x2 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!
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.
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
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.
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 1x2 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!
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.
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
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.
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.
