Eating Giant Water Bugs (AKA Water Scorpions, Maeng Da, Cà Cuống, & Alukap)
Channel: Bug Nomster
Date: 2012-07-24

I got my hands on one of the infamous Giant Water Bugs (Lethocerus indicus) thanks to Thailand Unique. This thing is massive. Despite that, there wasn't much to it as far as edibility was concerned. I've heard that they can be eaten whole, but I've also heard that the meat is removed from the shell. I took a small bite of the shell, but if it's ever edible, it certainly isn't in a dehydrated state.

In Vietnamese cooking, scent sacks are harvested from the males of the species, which otherwise produce pheromones to attract females. They're said to have a gnarly bite, with which they inject a powerful digestive enzyme which is extremely painful to humans, and deadly to their prey. In Thailand, they are commonly consumed fried.

Overall, I wasn't impressed with this dehydrated version. There was simply too much shell and not enough meat. I've seen impressive specimens which were prepared fresh, and that may make all of the difference. It had a slight hint of apple, and was otherwise similar to other water dwelling critters (kind of fishy), but only slightly.

This video is part of the Entomophagy Wiki project, which is attempting to catalog the world's collection of edible insects and other arthropods. You can view the page for this species at http://entomophagy.wikia.com/wiki/Lethocerus_indicus or visit the Entomophagy Wiki homepage at http://entomophagy.wikia.com.

Look for my other three videos from this order, where I eat Chinese Yellow Scorpions, Sago Worms, and Silkworm Pupae.

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Hi all. I lost access to this account for a number of years, had two jobs in a row sent overseas, have been homeless, and my mental health has been a mess. The pancemic has been especially rough, and I've been without income for 13 months so far, but I'm now stewarding some land on behalf of the owner on which I'm trying to develop a permaculture haven for others who have fallen on hard times. And yes, at some point, I hope to have an active microfarm complete with all kinds of creepy crawlies as part of my overall food production strategy.

If you're genuinely only interested in entomophagy, and not overall sustainable food production, I understand. But if you want to watch me build a sustainable food production system with no money, and attempt to produce 100% of my own food, you can follow the new channel that I've been working on:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtWvHnhwXkrPQu5wrYKgggQ

I certainly hope the quality is much improved over the stuff I was making 9 years ago, and I'm trying to improve it more and more with each video.