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Spring 2024

Insects

cricket chili
Fall 2020

Cricket chili

Richard Zack organized a Bug Buffet as part of his Entomology 101 course for about 20 years. One of the mainstays of the insect-eating event was his cricket chili.

“It’s a kind of standard chili recipe,” he says.

Then he would add the insects.

“I would buy like 10,000 crickets,” says Zack, now the associate dean for academic programs at WSU’s College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences.

He’s no longer teaching the class nor hosting the famed Bug Buffet. But, here, he offers his cricket chili recipe for readers who might want to try it at home. It’s based … » More …

Skewered bug
Fall 2020

Bug recipes

David George Gordon, aka “The Bug Chef,” doesn’t eat bugs every day. And bugs aren’t his only source of protein. But, for. more than 20 years, he’s traveled the country giving cooking demonstrations and convincing people to eat crickets and cockroaches and other insects and arachnids. Here, he shares a few of his recipes, including one—his personal favorite—for the Deep-Fried Tarantula he shared on “The Late Late Show” with James Corden in 2015.

Need some inspiration? Check out the links below to videos featuring Gordon preparing bugs at the famed Explorers Club gala in New York City as well as his appearance on “The Late … » More …

Cover of The Book of Caterpillars
Summer 2018

The Book of Caterpillars

Cover of The Book of Caterpillars

Edited by David G. James

The University of Chicago Press: 2017

 

Meet some of the world’s most wild, weird, and beautiful caterpillars. Using its own hairs, the lichen moth builds a basket around itself to stay protected during metamorphosis.

As the Red Helen caterpillar develops, its body starts to resemble a snake’s head. When threatened a red, forked appendage inflates from behind its own head, giving off an unpleasant … » More …