Should you eat insects in a survival situation?

Across the planet, there are millions of people who eat insects and creepy crawlies of all kinds, from a nice flame-grilled tarantula to ant larvae soup. while this may sound strange or disgusting to some people, insects have a higher concentration of protein than beef does. They are also rich in fats and calories and are one of the best things you could eat in a survival situation in terms of nutrition, but there are a few things you need to watch out for.

Not all bugs, or all parts of edible bugs can be eaten.

The general rule for working out if something is safe to eat or not would be obvious signs of being poisonous, which usually isn’t much of a problem in most of the northern hemisphere. Grasshoppers are a good example, as they are one of the safest insects you could eat in terms of the chances of making you sick, but there are a few exceptions. The eastern lubber which is common in Texas and some of the surrounding southern states will make you very nauseous if eaten, even if cooked first.

(A texas eastern lubber grasshopper, one of the few types that will make you ill if eaten)

So which bugs can I eat in a survival situation?

The good news is that the majority of bugs on earth are edible, with the ones you can’t eat usually being brightly colored or having some other sign they might be poisonous. Here is a list of some of the most nutrient-rich and worth-catching bugs to help you survive, or if you’re just curious and want to eat something weird-looking.

First Choice
Crickets, Grasshoppers, Ants and Termites

These are some of the most protein-rich and easy-to-eat insects, with ants and termites not being difficult to gather in large amounts. You can find crickets and grasshoppers anywhere there’s enough open grass-covered ground for them to breed in, but catching them is a little slower. The best method to catch these hopping little treats is to use a net, but if you do not have one then place the largest item of clothing you have in the grass and try to herd some towards it before balling them up. Trying to catch these things in long grass with nothing but your hands can be very difficult, so don’t waste the energy if you don’t have it and move on to something easier to gather, like ants for example.

(Dozens of ant hills spread across a meadow. An area like this would provide a huge amount of protein and calories if you were willing to collect enough)

Ant and termite hills are usually easy to spot and quite obvious as to what they are. If you find a small mound of earth and aren’t sure if anyone is home, then poke it with a stick or stamp on the surrounding earth and see if anything comes out. Gathering them can be a bit tricky since they are too small and too numerous to grab with your hands, so you’re going to have to get creative. The best method is to get a container of water and a stick, and really annoy them by hitting the mound a few times, then place the stick in the area where there are the most ants and wait until you have some attached. Dunk the stick in the water and shake them off, but make sure none are running up to your hand, then repeat the process until you have a pot with hundreds of floating dead ants in it. You can either boil them or fry them without any oil if you prefer your ants crispier, and they have a surprisingly good nutty flavor.

Second Choice

Grubs, Larvae, Beetles, and maggots
 

Beetles can be found in all kinds of environments, from rotting tree stumps to the middle of fields, it’s just the kind of bug you are happy to eat that matters the most. Here in the UK, we do not have any of the huge beetles found in places like South America, so they are a little less “unpleasant” to crunch up. The best places to look are plants they would be able to easily hide in, such as on trees with rough bark or under rocks and logs. They can also be easily found during the summer close to any plant that produces berries, as they make excellent hunting grounds for flies and aphids.

(Larvae are one of the safest things to risk eating raw, but swallowing them whole isn’t for everyone, and I’m guessing chewing them isn’t pleasant either.)

Maggots are an excellent source of protein but you have to be careful where you find them. They are almost always present on any kind of dead animal, but you should never eat maggots that have been feeding on rotting flesh. The safest place to find them would be within rotting wood, or any decomposing fruit or vegetable, but due to their dietary nature, you should never eat them without cooking.

Grubs and larvae are different from maggots and normally much safer to eat, even raw. It’s always a good idea to cook any kind of insect before eating them, but grubs and larvae are normally one of the safest things to eat as they are if you do it correctly. With the larger ones that have the ability to crawl, you should always put them down your throat head first and just swallow them. If the head is facing upwards it can block itself in your throat and crawl back up again. The safest way to make sure you don’t choke would be to chew them first, but I can only imagine how nasty it would be to burst open a raw and still wriggling larvae by chewing it. If you want to find some then the best places are any kind of rotting wood, where they will usually be close to the tunnel entrance, or in the earth under rotting plants no more than 3 inches down.

Last Choice

Flies, water boatmen, butterflies and moths, woodlice, earthworms, and aphids

Everything in this section should be a last resort and only eat them if you have to. Mostly because they are either hard to gather or have the highest risk of something going wrong. Any kind of flying creature should be well-cooked and if you choose to eat butterflies or moths then make sure they aren’t poisonous and that all of the hairs are burnt off when cooking them. Earthworms have the same risk and even though they are completely edible, it’s what’s inside that can cause problems. Soil has a massive concentration of various types of harmful bacteria in it, so any worms should not only be well cooked, but all of the insides and stuff it’s eaten should try to be squeezed out first, leaving you with a gross-looking tiny worm sock.

Any of the smaller types of beetles like woodlice are edible after cooking and pose little risk, but they are so small and difficult to gather in any amount worth eating. The earwig is another example but they generally don’t live in swarms and a single earwig weighing less than a gram isn’t worth starting a fire for. Both of these beetles can be found around rotting or damp wood, especially on dead trees where ripping off the bark will usually reveal a few.

(Even though they are small, they gather in large amounts and are easy to scrape of the plant)

Flies and aphids are another last resort and both are perfectly edible, but with flies, the question is what have they been eating? It’s not possible to butcher something this small so the stomach will also have to be consumed, and most flies are known to be attracted to the various types of waste people shouldn’t be eating. Catching a worthwhile amount of flies would also be a challenge without a net, so stay away from this option unless you’re actually about to starve to death.

Aphids are easier to gather and can be shaken off the plants they are on straight into a pot of water. They prefer plants with large flat leaves or any kind of wild fruits or vegetables and aren’t difficult to find in the slightest during the warmer months. They don’t feed on waste or dead animals so after a few minutes of boiling they will be safe to eat, though I can’t guarantee that aphid broth would be something to recommend.

Which insects “NOT” to eat

Slugs, snails, and spiders should always be avoided at all costs, especially the first two. Slugs are always out of the question and carry a huge range of harmful bacteria and they are also especially prone to harbouring parasites. There are stories of how bad people have become after eating slugs, with the best example being a man named Sam Ballard from Australia who at a small slug as a dare at a birthday party. There was a parasitic worm inside the slug and this caused him to become paralysed and he fell into a coma which lasted for a year until he died.

(no matter how hungry you are or how close to death you’ve become, you should never risk eating one of these things, unless you’re looking to speed up the process of dying)

Snails are similar in anatomy to slugs and aren’t quite as risky, but should never be eaten when found in the wild. There are many types of edible snails but the ones found in restaurants are specially bred on a diet of salad and grain instead of whatever they may have found in the wild.

Spiders are also widely eaten across the world, but normally in the form of tarantulas of certain types that provide actual meat. The issue with smaller spiders is that the cooking process will char anything in the legs but not destroy all the harmful bacteria in the abdomen. The fangs and abdomen can be removed before cooking but this will leave next to nothing worth eating, and still poses a small risk so just avoid this option.

How to cook your bugs

If you do not want to risk eating it raw, and you shouldn’t, then either boiling it or roasting it on an open flame on a stick is the best way to go. If they are big enough to put on a skewer, like crickets, beetles, and moths, then this is the easiest way to cook them and only takes a minute, depending on how charred you want them, just be sure to burn off any hairs on the outside of whatever you plan to eat.

Any type of larvae or squishy creatures is better boiled because cooking the bigger ones all the way through properly over a flame will result in charred black skin surrounding a nasty-tasting squishy center. Boiling is safer in terms of evenly heating and destroying any harmful germs, plus it’s not easy to cook something as small as aphids using any other method.

(A fried insect buffet, a common sight in many East Asian countries)

If you have the option of using something that can bake them, like a Dutch oven cooking pot, then anything that isn’t “juicy” like grubs or maggots can be cooked like this, and also provides less carbon than cooking over an open flame. Frying is another option but again only works for anything dry, like ants or crickets.

It’s never a good idea to try and eat any kind of wild insect unless you know what they have been eating themselves, and unless they have been living their entire lives in the same place, like ant larvae or a grub inside a tree trunk then a risk will always be present. Insects are not something to go out foraging for and should only be eaten in a survival situation after being well cooked.