Can Locusts Be Eaten? Price, Differences from Crickets, and Profit per Square Meter of Farming
Locusts, commonly known as grasshoppers, are a common pest in China's rice-growing, wheat-growing, and corn-growing crop regions. Because of their high nutritional value and tender meat, they are regarded as a green wild game, and many regions now eat them as a snack. So how much does a locust generally cost per jin? What is the difference from a cricket? How much can you earn by farming one square meter?
Can they be eaten?
Locusts can be eaten. The edible locust species include the Chinese rice locust and the East Asian migratory locust. Throughout the world there is a habit of using locusts as food. Locust meat is soft and tastes as delicious as shrimp. Major hotels and restaurants, whether pan-frying, stir-frying, deep-frying or quick-frying, turn out dishes such as “deep-fried grasshoppers, land flying shrimp, and flying locusts soaring” that are highly favored by consumers.
Market price:
At present, the market sales price of live East Asian migratory locusts remains at the level of 15-25 yuan/jin, but the online sales price of high-quality green live large grasshoppers is higher, with sales prices ranging from 25-55 yuan/jin.
Differences from crickets:
Locusts are also known as “grasshoppers”, “cao ming”, “zha ma”, and “ma zha”.
Features: usually green, brown or black, with a large head and short antennae; the pronotum is hard and extends to the left and right sides like a saddle, and the middle and hind thorax are fused and cannot move. The wings are longer than the body, the two wings cannot rub together to produce sound, the antennae are relatively short, and the body is slender.
The katydid is also known as guoguo, zhongsi and zhongsi'er.
Features: the body is grass-green, and the male's forewings rub against each other and can produce a “kuokuokuo” sound, crisp and loud. The wings are shorter than the body, the antennae are very long, and the body is stout.
How much does it cost to farm one square meter? How much can you earn?
Building a shed costs 300 yuan, and breeding insects cost 2,000 yuan. About 1,000 adult locusts can be raised per square meter. Locust farming is suitable for any household, for women and children alike, and the scale can be large or small. Starting production only requires 50 sq m of land, with feeding once a day. For the shed, we only need to buy better-quality screen mesh. Choose a location, first build a shed of about 50 sq m, and organize people to catch about 50X1,000 locusts like the ones in the picture from the mountains. The initial investment is about 500 yuan (excluding labor time and labor costs).
Profit analysis:
Buy 20,000 breeding eggs. The reproduction rate is 85%, that is, 17,000, of which females account for 50%, that is, about 8,000. Each female locust lays 40-80 eggs, so 300,000-600,000 eggs can be laid, breeding 280,000-500,000 young locusts. Subtracting a 20% mortality rate, 220,000-440,000 adult locusts can be raised. Each 500 weigh about one kilogram, so there is a yield of 440-880 kg. At the current market price of 20 yuan, the output value can reach 8,800-17,600 yuan, and this income requires only an investment of 2,000 yuan for breeding eggs and the greenhouse investment (note: these two investments are one-time inputs, and no further investment is needed afterward). Since no continued investment is needed in the second year, the profit will be even more considerable.
Farming locusts requires only a 35-day rearing process to become adults, and after about 50 days, once they are plump, they can be sold. Building a 200 sq m net shed can raise 200,000 locusts (about 400 kg), and its economic benefit is quite considerable. Costs are low, and the feed is mainly forage grass. The East Asian migratory locust has a very wide feeding range, just like feeding sheep. It likes to eat: reeds, thatch, Pennisetum, Xianlian grass, Pan grass, etc.; among grasses: corn, wheat, sorghum, millet, etc. Planting 1 mu of forage grass can solve all feed sources. The cycle is short, the benefit is high, and only one purchase of seeds is needed for a lifetime of benefit, with self-breeding and self-propagation multiplying dozens of times. Eggs hatch into locusts, locusts lay eggs, and the cycle repeats, forming a virtuous cycle.
How do you catch locusts?
Locusts like to eat tender grass. You can catch locusts in the wild where the grass is relatively lush. As for trapping, there is no feasible method. If you want to catch them to play with, you can just catch them by hand. What you need to note is: locusts mainly jump with their hind legs and then take off. In places with lush grass, it is not easy for them to take off, so they are relatively easy to catch. If you want to catch many locusts, you can catch them with a net. A net like the kind used to catch butterflies is better; sticky nets easily stick to grass and are also hard to operate.