So like, do you have to de-shell them or do you just eat them exoskeleton and all? Given that their diet is fresh sap and xylem water, they seem like pretty clean little bugs to eat. I'd try it.
I feel like this is what needs to be stated when talking about eating bugs. If you're giving me bugs that eat what amounts to sugar water then I'm much less concerned about bug poop.
Texture seems important too, and the thought of a sap eating bug that has a similar texture to shrimp... Doesn't sound all that bad. I'm honestly half tempted to try to test it when they emerge.
Seems like there's a fungus that's known to eat their ass, but as long as they're free of that it seems fair game.
I don't usually voluntarily eat bugs but if someone put that in front of me then I'd be curious enough to try it.
Inb4 "crab, shrimp and lobsters are basically bugs". Yeah, I don't usually eat them though. I used to love shrimp as a kid, but somewhere along the way I stopped enjoying the flavor. They aren't bad, just... Idk. Just not a fan anymore.
You see this all the time, but they're really not. With crab, shrimp, and lobster you usually extract the meat and just eat that. Bugs are mostly tiny so you eat the whole thing. Very different texture, not to mention taste.
I wonder what the ethics of marinating a creature alive is. Like, I'd be willing to try eating a bug, but I don't want my meal to suffer any more than it has to. Then again, I'm not sure Worcestershire is acidic enough to hurt it.
I wonder what would happen if you sat in a bathtub of Worcestershire for a few hours
It'll kill them, but not because it's acidic. Insects breathe through openings in their abdomens called spiracles. They'll slowly suffocate if the spiracles are blocked, like from being submerged.
Are most insects (and shrimp for that matter) actually able to feel? I mostly heard they are best described as automatons, like low-level robots made by nature. My roomba might have higher "brain" function than a cicada, but I don't know about newer studies.
Theory of mind is a diverse field with many different views and consequences. I land in the 4e camp of epistemology, so I would say experience of insect are equally experiences of conciousness as human experiences. When you let go of human centric parameters the world takes on a very different visage.
I liked this article about the 4e theory and it's implication on the breaking down of the divide between plants and conciousness. https://worldsensorium.com/what-plants-are-saying-about-us/
Yes, good point, but what worries me more is that the bullet point is missing where it says to gut the corpses and remove the cicada intestines and poop. Surely that's standard when eating... anything really. Make it poop-free?
"Halved, the nymphs reveal a surprisingly meaty, white interior. After eating one that was simply blanched, I thought it resembled what a tofu-filled M&M might taste like, with its crisp shell giving way to a spongy, earthy interior."
Exaxtly, Land Shrimps. No much difference between shrimps and cicades or grasshoppers. Same as in schrimps and crabs, you must put of the exosqueleto and wings.
snails are also in the diet in a lot of countries, the girls even smear their lips with crushed insects (Carmine, made from Dactylopius coccus)
You can have an allergy to any food, others are allergic to peanuts, strawberries or beef. It is an individual problem that does not prevent including shrimps or grasshoppers in the diet of people who like them. Things of custom and tradition. But the offer is one thing and the obligation to eat them is another, which does not exist.