"Headshot"
“New markets and food products are shifting towards small bugs as a healthy, sustainable alternative to animal protein. Bizarre fantasies may dance in your head, but it's not that crazy. Overcoming the 'ick' factor of eating crickets and other insects may seem like a big hurdle, but the benefits you gain in taste, nutrition, and sound arguments about 'saving the world' outweigh any preconceptions you may have." “ick” factor – a feeling of dirt, wrongness, disgust. These are the arguments of Americans who advocate eating grasshoppers, crickets, and locusts (these insects are not much different).
In one recent example of the trend, every day, University of Connecticut students buy a fresh batch of whole crickets from a truck, grown and cooked in a carbon dioxide atmosphere by UConn in Storrs.
What do locusts eat?
When forming a huge flock, the insect can eat all the vegetation that may be encountered on its way. The total weight of plants eaten per day is equal to the pest’s own weight, but the average flock destroys 3-4 tons of greenery every day
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In addition, the diet expands over the years - the older the insect, the more omnivorous it becomes
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Maybe have:
- Reed and reed thickets
along the banks of rivers, ponds, lakes, swamps; - Any cereal crops
- wheat, oats, corn, rye, barley, millet, sorghum and others. With less appetite, the insect destroys flax, buckwheat, and hemp; - Vegetable crops
- beans, beans, soybeans, table and sugar beets, potatoes and others;
- Fruit orchards
- the pest can eat leaves and fruits of plums, cherries, peaches, pears, and gnaw off the bark of young trees; - Planting grapes
- berries, petioles, grape leaves are eaten; - Cabbage, melons
- pumpkins, melons, watermelons, sunflower plantings; - Individually growing trees, shrubs, grass, including entire forests.
When locusts invaded a settlement or village, a reed or thatched roof and wooden household furnishings were often destroyed. In arid areas, the pest can feed on any dried grass and leaves.
Eating grasshoppers - normalize weight
These insects are a good basis for dietary nutrition. Having almost no fat, they contain chitin and chitosan, which help reduce weight by cleansing the body, in particular of trans fat deposits. I ate mayonnaise, “light butter” (spread), cake, baked goods, chips, and they contained regular or palm oil-based margarine containing trans fats. That is, lipids with a left-handed molecule, which are poorly digested, but are often deposited in cellulite and blood vessels so that the gym has little effect. But the menu with grasshoppers helps.
General information about the structure and size of insects
What if there is a cricket in the house - is this good or bad from the point of view of sanitary standards? It’s bad, because adult individuals not only create irritating noise, but also “ruin” the table, kitchen, bathroom and other rooms. Therefore, the answer to the question of what a cricket eats is simple - crumbs, leftover food, waste, etc. Their bodies are covered with a durable chitinous layer, which provides reliable protection.
It will not be difficult to spot the insect. A cricket that has taken up residence in a house, which we will discuss below on how to get rid of an orthoptera, has a body length of 16-25.8 mm and a head in the form of a flattened egg. Other distinctive features include:
- small eyes with a faceted structure - as if bulging;
- gnawing mouthparts. If you were wondering whether crickets bite or not, the answer is yes. Cases of human bites are extremely rare. But the insects themselves are extremely aggressive and can put up real fights. They are able to chew solid food;
- long antennae that act as an organ of touch. Their length in 87% of cases exceeds the body size;
- membranous wings allowing easy movement from place to place. If you don’t know how to get rid of crickets in an apartment, then the simplest method—catching—will not work. Thanks to its wings and sense of touch, the insect immediately senses danger and reacts instantly. Once you learn how to catch a cricket in the house, you will have to try. After all, domestic Orthoptera can make long and sharp jumps and long journeys;
- three pairs of strong and jumping legs. Do not come up with ways to catch a cricket in an apartment, they will not be successful;
- the hearing organs are located on the shins of the first pair of legs.
If effective measures are not taken, the insect will not only settle in the house, but will also begin to multiply. It is interesting to know how long outdoor and indoor class crickets live. Years of life - up to 3 months.
Before deciding how to get rid of crickets on your property, find out where they came from. This information will help prevent insects from re-infesting your home in the future. Once you know what crickets eat and in what conditions they feel most comfortable, it will be very easy to answer this exciting question.
As soon as the ambient temperature drops below 18-210C, orthoptera pests lose interest in food and mobility. The deposited larvae stop growing and developing. And since the cricket is an insect that leads an active nocturnal lifestyle, the night temperature that is comfortable for it does not last so long in our latitudes. To survive and raise offspring, he moves to warmth. The domestic cricket feels comfortable at a temperature of 28-350C.
It’s not only warm in apartments and houses, but it’s also easy to find food. Especially if you live in the kitchen. Let us remind you what crickets eat in a person’s house:
- flies and cockroaches;
- ants and crumbs;
- food waste from the trash can;
- moth, etc.
Do you want to know how long a cricket lives in the presence of heat and food? Long, over 3 months.
Grasshoppers improve blood flow
They cleanse blood vessels, as well as the intestines and soft tissues with the help of chitin and chitosan. Food can be indigestible, not completely digested, and release toxins. And all sorts of by-products, semi-finished products, fast foods are replete with preservatives, antibiotics, harmful flavoring additives and dyes. Chitins cleanse blood vessels. Easily soluble and absorbable iron contained in bugs helps the reproduction of red blood cells. Grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets contain as much or more iron than beef. Consumption of these insects reduces one of the most common diseases - iron deficiency anemia.
Lifestyle
The green grasshopper (photo above) is most active from May to September, and by time of day - from dusk. Favorite places of settlement are chernozem soil of medium or low humidity overgrown with weeds and bushes.
The gluttony of these insects is incomprehensible. During periods of abundance, they are able to hunt for days on end, and wait for prey, using their camouflage, in a motionless state. At the right moment, when a gaping small insect finds itself in an area of free access, the “little green one” suddenly throws out its front pair of legs in front of itself and firmly grabs the victim. The power of the jaws (mandibles) is so great that the chitinous skeleton of any insect is not a problem for them. If the hunt does not bring results, the grasshopper’s diet consists of greens, and, on occasion, its own less dexterous brothers.
What if someone attacks him, a representative of the Orthoptera order? The grasshopper will begin to actively resist, using its jaws and all three pairs of legs. The insect tries to scare off large encroachers on its life with a special odorous secretion.
¼ of the world's population knows that bugs can be very tasty
Eating insects, entomophagy, is practiced daily by about 2 billion people in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Humans have consumed insects for centuries, and they have become a staple animal in many of the planet's conventionally vegetarian diets. They are usually eaten freshly caught, raw, and considered a delicacy. The aversion to food insects is largely due to the barrier of tradition in the Western world. Although morals change. Some terrarium owners, for example those who keep turtles, breed insects for their pets, and sometimes try them themselves, preparing them to their own taste.
Reproduction of green grasshopper
The period of reproduction and the most intensive reproductive development of the grasshopper occurs in July-September. This time of year is characterized by the maximum musicality of insects, and the sound production of each individual is individual and unique, like the modulation of the human voice.
After mating, the female carries the eggs for several days, and then, individually or in small groups of 3-8 pieces, lays them in the most inconspicuous and inaccessible places - in the soil, between the rhizomes of trees, in the cracks of dried tree bark. The total number of eggs can reach six hundred units. The eggs will remain in the shelter throughout the cold season, until in the spring, with the onset of warmth, the larvae - nymphs - hatch.
Outwardly, nymphs are no different from an adult, only in tiny size and a huge appetite, but upon closer examination one can note their lack of wings. Since the small insect is covered with a chitinous skeleton, incapable of growth, during development the grasshopper sheds the integument that has become tight up to eight times, under which, like a molar under a milk tooth, a new, larger skeleton develops. Before the “imago” period - reaching the level of development of an adult, the young animals develop two pairs of wings and reproductive organs.
Grasshoppers support environmental sustainability
According to Water Foot Print, a cow uses 15,400 liters of water to produce 1 kg of beef. The main part of this water is spent on irrigation for feed crops for the cow. Growing fast-growing and unpretentious grasshoppers and crickets opens up the opportunity to produce commercial food products, saving on water and production space. Insects are an alternative to animal protein and can be a sustainable way to reduce the effects of global warming. They have a tiny ecological footprint. They emit far fewer greenhouse gases, require little water, and consume less food per unit weight than any mammal.
Reproduction, harmfulness and control measures
Green grasshoppers mate in about 45 minutes, and the female eats the spermatophore for up to 15 hours. Males begin to chirp again within a few minutes after mating. Eggs are laid in August - the female can lay about a hundred eggs in the ground.
The eggs are cylindrical, slightly greenish, and their length reaches 6 mm. With the onset of frost, the adults die, and the eggs survive the winter - later, with the arrival of spring, larvae emerge from them. Molting occurs 5 times during maturation, after which the individuals grow into adults, bypassing pupation.
Many will be interested in what the green grasshopper eats. This is a predator that eats caterpillars, butterflies and some other insects. There are cases of eating weaker individuals of their species. If certain difficulties arise with nutrition, insects eat plants, flowers, leaves, as well as stems, grass and cereals. There are frequent cases of attacks by grasshoppers on thickets of grapes and shag.
It is necessary to combat the pest comprehensively, locating tobacco crops as far as possible from oviposition sites - virgin territories. When insects multiply too quickly, poisonous baits consisting of bran, water and arsenic acid soda are used.
The green grasshopper is an insect from the order Orthoptera, familiar to us from childhood. He surprises with his originality. Having in its arsenal of advantages such an amazing adaptation as jumping legs, this little stubborn creature spends hours crawling from blade to blade of grass to overcome 2-3 meters. Or it spreads its wings and flies the distance, saving its unique “jumping ability” for another occasion.
Grasshoppers are culinary versatile
Crickets have a subtle flavor that some describe as nutty or popcorn-like. Dishes made from fresh insects are easy to prepare by first grinding them in a blender. How to eat grasshoppers? The most accessible and popular food product in the United States is “cricket” or “crack” flour – dried ground insects. It is generally accepted that a few tablespoons can provide nutritional benefits to any meal. Crack flour contains twice as much protein as beef; it contains twice as much iron as spinach; more vitamin B12 than salmon. Crack flour can be added to smoothies, baked goods, sauces, and more.
Where does an insect hide in an apartment or house?
Knowing the places where the insect hides during the daytime will help you learn how to remove a cricket from a house or apartment. Since the air temperature near the floor is always lower, orthoptera move to the ceiling or heat sources. If you want to know how to remove a cricket from an apartment, isolate:
- cracks near heating radiators or stoves (at home);
- shelves under the ceiling;
- sources of moisture - wet rags, paper, etc.;
- cracks in window frames with condensation, etc.
You already know what a cricket eats in the house, so you should look for its location in the kitchen.
Results
So, there is a problem: the vast majority of us do not consume an abundance of crayfish, crabs, shrimp, lobsters, Ocean pasta, that is, products containing body-cleansing agents - chitin and chitosan. Also, sports and dietary nutrition are not many “ready” sources. We have to think about including something less traditional on the menu. Insects, like crustaceans, are nutritious and covered in chitin. Suitable for diets and sports, promotes cleansing. The arguments are interesting; they are supported by patented industrial technologies for growing grasshoppers, producing crack flour, and making food products from it. Think for yourself, decide for yourself. If there is no fish, a grasshopper will do instead of a lobster. To someone. Fitness bars made from crack flour look competitive with “crab sticks” - made from ice cream, bleached, colored minced fish. Still, I think that “Ocean” krill paste is healthier than grasshoppers. And, you can successfully breed marine or freshwater shrimp. Be that as it may, from deserts to the tropics, grasshoppers as food are a fashionable trend in an old tradition.
Males are eaten first
Nguyen Quang Gui, 30, lives in a village on the outskirts of Dalat. This city is located in the mountains in South Vietnam. Peasant Gui learned that grasshoppers can be grown for sale on... the Internet. The World Wide Web has reached the Vietnamese hinterland. Gui spent five years mastering the cunning technology and reaching a decent level of sales: 30 kilograms of grasshoppers a day. Now it is going to expand: customers from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City - the largest Vietnamese cities - are ready to buy up to 50 kilos of live “product” daily. This, by the way, is about 50 thousand swarming and jumping insects!
The young “insect breeder” sends orders by mail and by plane. Maybe in some other country such cargo would not be taken on board - but how will the box open?! - but there are no problems in Vietnam.
The business is very profitable, considering that in Vietnam the wholesale price per kilogram of live grasshoppers is $15, and the cost of a serving of fried grasshoppers (100 grams) in a not very expensive restaurant is $4. But for now, the entire farm of the “insect breeder” is an ordinary barn with huge rustling boxes standing in it. The inside of the boxes is lined with polyethylene, and old newspapers hang on a structure made of cross slats. Grasshoppers love crevices in which they can hide from danger and daylight.
On top, right on the slats, banana leaves and bananas themselves are thrown. In general, grasshoppers are omnivores. They prefer greens, vegetables and fruits, but also eat cereals, meat and even powdered milk. And if they are hungry, they can eat their own offspring. For drinking, Gui puts wet slices of fresh potatoes on them, this is quite enough if you don’t forget to change them every day. When there are too many residents in a box, they begin to get nervous and behave aggressively. At this moment, the “housing issue” needs to be urgently resolved. When settling young people in new “homes”, it is desirable that there are 2 times more females than males, otherwise the latter will fight. This is why quarrelsome males are prime candidates for sale and consumption.
“When I was a child, we used to organize grasshopper fights in the village,” says Gui. — We caught them in the rice fields after the harvest. They poured water into their holes and they crawled out. To anger the grasshoppers, we tied them with long hair and spun them around. They got angry and attacked each other. You could place bets!
Front leg of a grasshopper
Each leg has four sections: coxa, swivel, femur, tibia, and tarsus.
The coxa is the first segment of the leg of an arthropod, by which it is connected to the body. The articulation of the coxa with the lateral surface of the body segment is usually carried out by two condyles - dorsal and ventral, which ensures the movement of the leg forward and backward.
The swivel is the part of the femur that rotates in the pelvic cup.
The femur is the third segment of the leg from the base, movably articulated by the condyle with its neighbors.
The tibia is a segment of the leg, with its proximal (nearest) end movably connected to the thigh.
In the same frame you can see not only the auditory organ, but also the auditory opening.
The hearing organs of the grasshopper family are located in pairs on the upper part of the tibia of the front legs. From the outside, the organs appear in the form of elastic membranes, which, like the eardrum in the organ of hearing of vertebrates, can vibrate under the action of sound waves. These membranes are parts of the general chitinous cover of insects and in grasshoppers they are covered with a denser chitinous fold. The membranes can be stretched using special muscles. The organ of hearing allows you to detect sounds of different frequencies (in particular ultrasounds).
Front wings of a grasshopper
The fore wings (elytra) are leathery, compacted, with almost parallel longitudinal veins. The hind wings are wider with radially diverging longitudinal veins. The protective role of the front wings is determined by the degree of their compaction. In orthopterans that live in thickets of plants, the upper leathery wings protect the more delicate hind wings from damage when moving among dense herbaceous vegetation.
