raw bugs

Question
Whats your opinion on eating raw bugs? Do you think it would be a good idea to
add bugs like ants, crickets, etc for a different variety of meats in one's diet
along with the nutrition that they might offer? Or maybe eating bugs could be
considered as a "supplement" to someones RAF diet? What do you think?

Answer
Well, I've only rarely experimented with eating raw insects(just larvae and live maggots settled on aged raw meat, nothing else). I'm sure they were fine on a nutritional level, being rather bland in taste, but I was a bit too repulsed by these experiences to really go in for bug-eating in a big way - which is silly, as insect-eating is still quite common in many other countries, such as China, Africa etc. - and besides it's been estimated that we all  inadvertently consume at least a pound of  insects over our entire lives, as microscopic insect-parts will always end up in our food, no matter how much it's sprayed or processed.

Given that insects are so tiny, I doubt they can ever really form a significant part of one's diet, but as a supplement they're excellent, as kilo for kilo, they appear to be more nutrient-dense than meats from herd-animals etc.. What I would suggest is that you look around and find out which bugs are most often eaten for human consumption, preferably in raw form. I've heard that one of the tastiest bugs(in raw form) is the Aboriginal favourite, the witchetty grub(aka "witjuti grub") - the Japanese also go in for raw hornet sashimis and termites are a big favourite in other parts of the world.  Anyway, here are some standard sites re insect-eating, some of which focus on cooking insects, but which provide useful info, nevertheless:-

http://www.manataka.org/page160.html

http://www.edibleunique.com/

Bruno Comby also has a book on entomophagy but it's only published in French, Italian and German, I'm afraid:-

http://www.comby.org/livres/livresen.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ythfacts/bugfood/yf813.htm

http://www.eatbug.com/

Earthworms are also worth going in for, according to reports.Apparently, as long as you soak them overnight, the soil-content gets purged. With regard to bees/hornets and similiar , you'd have to remove the stingers as it would act as a poison if ingested - the poison is apparently removed via boiling, but that defeats the purpose, rather. Also, I wouldn't recommend eating raw any insects with hard outer shells, for obvious reasons.  

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