CRICKETS FOR SURVIVAL
Crickets live in shallow tunnels dug beneath stones or dirt or in clumps of plant matter. Males can often be heard calling females for mating at night when they are more active. Most species are found in grasslands and forest, but many others can also be found near seashores, in marches, trees and caves.
TELLING THE TEMPERATURE WITH A CRICKET
LIVE BAIT
Using crickets as live bait, you can catch fresh fish. Cricket fishing is well suited to shoreline fishing as it is most effective within 15 feet of the banks of small lakes.
A discarded can will serve well as a fishing reel. Anchor the free end of your fishing line and cast the baited hook into the water. Wrap your line around the can to bring the hook back. Continue to cast and reel in your line until you have a fish.
A SOURCE OF FOOD
Crickets reproduce twenty times faster than cattle raised for food. Over the span of three or four weeks, over 1,000 eggs can be laid by a female. Crickets require a fraction of the space and food needed to raise other forms of meat. These insects are twice as efficient at meat production as pigs or chickens. They can supply meat at a rate that is four times that of sheep and six times that of cattle, after deductions for trimming and dressing.
The meat from crickets provide protein and other nutrients. One hundred grams of cricket meat contains 3% carbohydrate, 6% fat and 21% protein in addition to 21 mgs calcium. For each gram dry weight of cricket meat there is 63 to 122 milligrams of fatty acid (linoleic acid & a0linolenic acid), copper, magnesium and iron. All of this is available for the cost of vegetable table scraps.
HERDING CRICKETS
A series of large trenches would be dug by the Paiute people as a means of catching crickets. Dry straw would be placed over this. Then the crickets would be driven into the trenches. Next, the straw was set ablaze and the crickets were roasted. Bushels of the roasted crickets were then gathered to be ground into flour used to bake protein-rich bread.
FARMING CRICKETS
PREPARING TO EAT
Place in a colander your selection of crickets. Use cheesecloth or wire screening to quickly cover this and keep the insects contained. Run water over the top to rinse them thoroughly. Shake the excess water from the container. Seal the crickets in a container and place this in the freezer for 15 minutes. While this length of time will be enough to kill the crickets, it will not be enough time to freeze them. Take them out of the freezer and rinse the crickets once more. Depending on your personal preference, the legs, wing cases and heads can be removed. The legs can be painful to swallow and will sometimes get stuck in the teeth. Crickets can be consumed raw, but they can also be dehydrated or roasted and incorporated into your recipes.
TAKE PRECAUTIONS
Be careful when selecting crickets for food. Avoid those found near or in residential areas as these might have been exposed to chemical insecticides or herbicides.
Below Ray Mears demonstrates using a can as a fishing reel.
It's towards the end of this short video:
