Survival Time: Raising nutritious and edible bugs

When you really need to go to last resort scenarios and TSHTF why not raise your own Crickets & Mealworms???

Before you are repulsed by this, check out the facts on cricket nutrition:

100 grams of cricket contains - 121 calories, 12.9 grams of protein, 5.5 g. of fat, 5.1 g. of carbohydrates, 75.8 mg. calcium, 185.3 mg. of phosphorous, 9.5 mg. of iron, 0.36 mg. of thiamin, 1.09 mg. of riboflavin, and 3.10 mg. of niacin. Au natural.

Compare this with ground beef, which, although it contains more protein (23.5 g.), also has 288.2 calories AND 21 grams of fat!

Raising Crickets:
Crickets are easy to raise and prepare, it's hard to keep them from escaping. Crickets can be kept in a large container with high sides and a tight lid. Aquariums work well. Put a couple inches of potting soil on the bottom of the container.

This crickets deposit their eggs in the soil. Put several egg cartons in the aquarium for the crickets to roost on. Then, place a small container of grains and vegetable scraps in for food, and a container of moist cotton balls for water. Add 50-100 crickets. Mist the potting soil lightly every few days, and make sure that the crickets always have fresh food. You can probably start harvesting the crickets within a few months.

Raising Mealworms:
Take a flat plastic tub with a lid, fill it with an inch or so of oats or other grain, put in a slice of potato, carrot or other hard vegetable as a source of water, and then deposit your mealworms!

Make sure to replace the slice of potato fairly frequently, otherwise you will be growing mold instead of mealworms.

The mealworms you get at the store are in their larval stage, and it may be a few months before they mature into beetles, so be patient. 100 mealworm larvae is a good colony start if you are not going to be eating them very often.

Preparation of crickets or mealworms:
Take what you want, rinse them and dry em. For crickets, pour them all into a colander and cover it quickly with a piece of screening. Then put the crickets or mealworms in a plastic bag and put them in the freezer until they are dead but not frozen. 20 mins or so. Take them out and re-rinse them again. You are now ready to use the insects in all kinds of culinary treats!

To make insect flour:
Spread your cleaned insects out on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Set your oven 200 degrees and dry insects for approximately 2-3 hours. When the insects are done, they are brittle and crush easily. Take your dried insects and grind them till they are about consistency of wheat germ. Use in practically any recipe!

Mealworm Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup mealworm flour

Cream butter well, then mix in sugar, egg, vanilla flour, salt, baking soda, chocolate chips, oats, and mealworm flour. Drop batter by the teaspoonful on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees farenheit.

Chocolate Covered Crickets
25 adult crickets
Several squares of semisweet chocolate

Prepare the crickets as described above. Bake at 250 degrees until crunchy. Heat the squares of semi sweet chocolate in a double boiler until melted. Dip the dry roasted crickets in the melted chocolate one by one, and then set the chocolate covered crickets out to dry on a piece of wax paper. Enjoy!