How to Catch Termites...for Dinner

When I returned from my flight on Friday, there was a ladder leaning up against the front of the hangar. One of the guys was up on the ladder installing a light fixture. Probably a good idea to have a security light.

On Saturday morning, we looked out the window, and there were quite a few people walking up and down the grass airstrip. They were all bent over, looking intently at the ground, and occasionally picking something up and putting it into a bottle. We had no idea what they were doing until later when I went up to the hangar. Right underneath that newly installed light bulb were hundreds, maybe thousands, of termite wings. The kids on the airstrip were hunting for termites to cook up and eat. I’ve never tried them, but apparently they are quite tasty.

One of the guys gave me a tip on catching termites. If you pick them up off the ground after they shed their wings and have been crawling around, you might get a bit of an unpleasant earthy flavor. But if you position a bag near a place they might congregate (like a light bulb) then they will fly in and you end up with a bag full of clean termites that taste much better than the rest.

I don’t plan on hunting termites anytime soon. But if I do, I’ll let you know how the bag technique works. And also if they taste as good as advertised.