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Why is Mexico Called an Insectivorous Country?

In many parts of the world, people have maintained the tradition of eating insects. In Mexico, the custom has been around for centuries, as Mexico is world-renowned for the number and variety of insects.

The history of Mexicans’ fondness for eating insects can be traced back thousands of years. Many easy-to-catch large animals have gradually become extinct, and it has become more and more difficult for Indians living in the American continent to hunt. They find that insects and eggs are the easiest to obtain. Delicious food, therefore, insects gradually became the main food of various Indian tribes, including the Aztecs, and they gradually established insect recipes.

Father Bernandino Saagón, who followed the Spanish colonists to Mexico, noticed the local residents’ habit of eating insects. In his “Historical Chronicles of Frentino”, he recorded that the Aztecs ate more than 90 the name of the insect. He vividly described that the local residents kept a kind of worm that produced honey in their stomachs and could constantly squeeze out the honey to eat. The Aztecs also dedicated a water insect wrapped in rice dumplings to the god of fire.

Insects are extremely reproductive and can survive in any environment on Earth, from perennially frozen regions to arid deserts. In Mexico, insects are part of the diet because Mexico is world-renowned for the number and variety of insects and because of their high nutritional value.

Mexicans eat more than 450 insects, according to estimates by Ramos, an expert on edible insects. Edible insects mainly include “Chaplin” locusts, dragonflies, butterflies, caterpillars, mosquitoes, ants, bees and so on. It is worth mentioning that, depending on the species, some insects can eat their eggs, larvae and adults, that is, throughout their developmental period. Among them, the most famous and most eaten insects include “Chaplin” locust, “Lake Mill” water mosquito, agave, “Escamole” ant eggs and so on.

In some high-end restaurants in Mexico City, people can taste the most representative insect of Mexico, the “Chaplin” locust. The locusts are expensive, up to $9 a kilo, more expensive than beef. In the market of Oaxaca, Mexico, locusts of different sizes can often be seen: the large ones are about 2 cm long, and the small ones are less than 1 cm. According to eaters, the smaller the better, and the price of the little locust is the highest, which confirms this. In Oaxaca City, “Chaplin” pizza is growing in popularity.

The “Lake Mir” mosquito is an insect of the order Hemiptera. There are more than 10 species of mosquitoes edible in some parts of Mexico, but in terms of taste and nutritional value, the best is the “Lake Mir” that lives in the mountains around the city of Taxco. Mir’ mosquito. The 1.5cm-long mosquito eats the sap of leaves and hides under trunks, roots of plants and trees, or dry leaves on the ground. The “Lake Mill” mosquito is highly valued locally, especially in Lake Mill Mountain on the outskirts of Taxco. There every year on the first Monday in November is the “Lake Mill” festival, where the capture begins after Mass in the church in the mountains.

“Escamole” is the ant eggs of many kinds of ants, especially those in arid lands. April is the best time for locals to dig ant eggs from underground ant nests. The people who collect the eggs, which are similar in size to a grain of rice, are highly skilled. They follow the ants out in search of food, and when they find the location of the ant’s nest, they dig until they find the ants weave out of sticks, mud and leaves. cave for spawning. Sometimes 1 kilogram of ant eggs can be dug up in one ant colony.

In the heart of the agave leaf lies a delicacy that people in central Mexico have been eating for centuries. This is the endangered agave white bug, which is extremely expensive. In the roots of agave, there is also an edible insect, which is the agave red worm. In the semi-arid regions of central Mexico, the bugs can be seen crawling off agave plants to drink on the ground after the first rain of the year. At this time, people began to capture, and can get a lot of money.