28 Six-legged livestock: edible insect farming, collecting and marketing in Thailand Collecting techniques Wild-harvested edible insects Bamboo caterpillars are mainly collected in the north of Thailand. Apart from farmed edible insects like Bamboo caterpillars were tradi onally crickets and palm weevil larvae, other collected by cutting down entire edible insect species such as silkworm bamboo clumps to harvest the pupae, grasshoppers, weaver ants and caterpillars. This approach was bamboo caterpillars are also popular destruc ve and some mes wasteful food items and can be found in every of bamboo material. More recently a market. less invasive collec on method has been tried. Sustainable collec on Grasshoppers, weaver ants, giant without cutting bamboo trees is water bugs and bamboo caterpillars starting to be practised by local are the most popular wild edible people. Mr.Piyachart, a collector of insects consumed. Grasshoppers are bamboo caterpillars from the wild, collected in the wild, but mainly was interviewed in Chiang Rai Province imported from Cambodia; weaver to learn about his sustainable ants and bamboo caterpillars are collecting method. The adult harvested in the wild seasonally. caterpillar exits, a er pupa emergence, from a hole at the base of the bamboo stem. The fi rst or second internode is Bamboo caterpillar examined to reveal the damage (Omphisa fuscidenƩ alis caused by the bamboo caterpillar and Hampson, Family its loca on. The denseness of an Pyralidae) internode is a clue to indicate the presence of bamboo caterpillars. The Known in Thai as rod fai duan or ‘the harves ng of bamboo caterpillars is express train’ the larvae live inside conducted by slicing the specifi c bamboo plants for around ten months. infested internode to obtain the larvae It feeds on 11 species of Dendrocalamus without cu ng the whole plant. and Thyrsostachys bamboo. The Collec on is carried out by cu ng a number of larvae depends on the size rectangular hole approximately 9 x 13 of the bamboo culms (Kayikananta square cen metres in size at specifi c 2000; Leksawasdi 2001). internodes hosting the bamboo caterpillars. Six-legged livestock: edible insect farming, collecting and marketing in Thailand 29 The female moth lays a mass of 80 to is controlling ma ng in a nylon net 130 eggs on the sheaths at the base cage covering the bamboo shoot and of bamboo shoots. A er hatching, the the second is releasing moths for young larvae bore an entrance hole natural ma ng into the bamboo plot. mostly from the fi h to the tenth The la er is best because it is easy internodes. The larvae live and eat and convenient. inside the bamboo shoot, usually a young shoot, on the upper part, un l Economics and marketing they are 45 to 60 days old, when they move down to congregate in the According to farmer groups at Tambon internode with the exis ng egress Waree, Chiang Rai Province, each year point for another eight months. The about 500 kilograms of bamboo Royal Forest Department recommends caterpillars are harvested and sold at that the best time for collecting THB200-250/kilogram to buyers who bamboo caterpillars is around January come to their villages. to April when bamboo caterpillars can be obtained from the specific Mr Jaturong, an edible insect internode and the infested bamboo entrepreneur, is one of the biggest culm can be harvested for later buyers of bamboo caterpillars. His u liza on (Kayikananta 2000). company brand is ‘Mae Urai, Edible Insect’. Each year he buys at least Generally, the infested bamboo culms 20 000 kilograms of bamboo caterpillars are stronger than the non-infested from villages in the north of Thailand; ones because the wood cells are small 10-20 percent comes from and dense, making them stronger and neighbouring countries such as Lao heavier than normal bamboo. They PDR and Myanmar. The product is can be u lized to make bamboo packaged in both uncooked frozen handicra s and construc on poles. packs and ready-to-eat boxes (deep- fried beforehand). The uncooked Rearing technique frozen packs are distributed throughout Thailand via the Makro The best prac ce for farming bamboo wholesale supermarket chain. On caterpillars has yet to be developed. average, 1 000 kilograms are sold each Currently, the Royal Forest Department month at THB365/kilogram. The had developed management rearing ready-to-eat (cooked) bamboo techniques for bamboo caterpillars caterpillars are packed in plas c boxes (Kayikananta 2000). Two management containing 100 grams and sell at methods are recommended. The fi rst THB130 in retail shops. Each month 30 Six-legged livestock: edible insect farming, collecting and marketing in Thailand around 3 500 to 4 000 boxes are sold. Recently, the company has developed As the bamboo caterpillar is widely a new product line of cooked bamboo consumed and in demand, a simple caterpillars sealed in a container that and effi cient breeding technology for can be heated in a microwave oven bamboo caterpillars at the farm level before ea ng. as well as imported product processing should be further inves gated and Opportunities and constraints developed. Bamboo caterpillars are one of the most popular edible insects and the Weaver ant (Oecophylla selling price is s ll quite high compared smaragdina Fabricius, to other edible species. A rearing Family Formicidae) technique has been developed, although it is s ll based on semi- Weaver ants are known locally as ‘red’ natural habitat and s ll needs bamboo ants or mod-daeng and are a popular as the food source. However, with delicacy. The ant workers construct proper management of semi-natural nests by weaving together leaves farming and harvesting, bamboo using larval silk. Many ant colonies caterpillars can become a more can be found on one tree. popular edible insect and help with income genera on for local people. Weaver ants are predominantly found The area of bamboo planta ons could in the northeast and have been be increased for farming purposes – interlinked with the way of life of an indirect contribution to people in this region for a long me. environmental conserva on. Tradi onal local folk songs and dances have included stories of red ant egg Lack of knowledge or only basic harves ng. Red ant eggs (the larval understanding about the biology, and pupal stage), or khai mod-daeng ecology and habitat of these are popular food. Pupae and adults caterpillars by local harvesters are also eaten. The most popular presents a risk to the ongoing dishes, par cularly in the northeast, availability of the species. Therefore, are omelet mixed with red ant eggs proper management and harves ng and Thai red ant egg salad (yum khai techniques for sustainable use of this mod-daeng). insect are urgently needed for local people; mainly ethnic groups in the Usually weaver ants are harvested north of Thailand. from trees in the wild. However, some Six-legged livestock: edible insect farming, collecting and marketing in Thailand 31 farmers can breed and maintain is poked into the nest with the p of weaver ant colonies in their own the pole and it is shaken so the larvae gardens on mango trees. The colonies and pupae fall down into the bag. can be maintained and expanded if Then the bag is poured onto a plate their host trees are protected from or container and some rice or tapioca predators and have good access to fl our is added to prevent the ants from water. The weaver ants need water climbing up to bite the collector. A to produce ace c acid. branch is put on the plate for adult ants to climb back up the branch and A method to propagate ant nests in it is whipped against a tree to release mango orchards is the use of overhead the adult ants. The remaining larvae ant highways that link the trees of the and pupae are removed for orchard. These ant highways help the consump on (Lewvanich et al. 1999). ants to conserve energy by not needing to leave their trees and also Economics and marketing protect them from ground based predators. Consequently nest Information on production and mul plica on is accelerated. The marke ng of weaver ants is limited to highways are made from any type of individual cases. Currently, the market rope, except plas c material, but price for weaver ant eggs is round ra an canes are preferred. THB250-500/kilogram depending on the period and loca on. When the Collecting techniques season is nearly over, the price will be high. Usually 1-2 kilograms of weaver In north and northeast Thailand the ants can be collected in the wild each season for weaver ants’ harves ng day although some collectors can usually occurs once a year during the collect 5-8 kilograms/day. About dry season between February and 300-400 grams of larvae and pupae May. During this period the arboreal per nest can be harvested. On average nests of the weaver ants are full of one collector can earn THB250-500/ eggs, larvae and pupae. In Petchabun day. Province the season occurs from January to May and three crops are The income for weaver ant sellers at obtained annually. markets in the northeast and north (based on interviews) is around THB Harves ng is undertaken using a long 1 200-3 000/day with around 5-10 bamboo pole with a bag or basket kilograms of weaver ants sold per day a ached with strings to the p. A hole (on average 5 kilograms/day). 32 Six-legged livestock: edible insect farming, collecting and marketing in Thailand Opportunities and constraints One wholesaler at Talad Thai market in Bangkok, which is one of the biggest Weaver ants are very popular and edible insect markets, can sell around consumer demand is higher than the 30-40 kilograms/day and net profi t is natural supply.