Creepy Pets: Huge Beetles Sell for $130 each ( Colombia Money Making Idea )

DodgerDogs says on Friday March 21st, 2008 20:05:

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

DodgerDogs says on Friday March 21st, 2008 20:17:

You could also sale Ants , there is money to made in Colombia bugs !

BARICHARA, Colombia (AP)—The first loud crackle tastes and feels like popcorn, but by the time the juices spray wildly in your mouth and the filament-like legs slide down your throat, there's no mistaking this toasted ant queen.

The people of sun-soaked northern Colombia have been eating ants for centuries. They believe the accurately named "hormiga culona''—big-butt queen ant—is everything from a natural form of Viagra to a protein-rich defense against cancer.

Now the invertebrates are going global: A businessman in Santander province exported more than 880 pounds of the inch-long queen ants last year, many of them to be hand-dipped in Belgian chocolate and sold in fancy packaging at $8 for a half dozen at upscale London department stores like Harrods and Fortnum & Mason.

But even as the delicacy begins to expand beyond Colombia, the ants appear to be dwindling in Santander, and that worries the region's ant-eating bipeds.

This year's harvest, which usually begins around Easter and lasts as late as June, was one of the worst on record, with peasants in the artist colony of Barichara reporting half their normal year's haul.

Entomologists say the winter was unusually harsh and spring rains were late, which may have disturbed the virgin queen ants' nuptial flights—the one time a year when they emerge from their dune-like ant hills to seek a mate and form a new colony. Almost as often, the queens are grabbed by lizards, birds or humans.

Expanding fields of beans, tomatoes and tobacco also have replaced the region's last remaining wilderness and farmers consider the leaf-cutting ants—the species atta laevigata—to be serious pests.

"It's an age-old dilemma for the farmer—should I kill it or eat it?'' said Andres Santamaria, who was given a $40,000 grant from Santander's government to develop an environmentally sustainable, export-oriented program for breeding the ants.

Whatever the local conditions, overseas demand by itself won't endanger the ant supply, say those involved in the trade.

"We're never going to eat Colombians out of their ants,'' said Todd Dalton, a 30-year-old chef in London whose yen for the exotic dish led him to create Edible, a novelty food brand whose products are not for the squeamish.

Last year, Edible sold some 220 pounds of the ants, most of them dipped in chocolate, along with other specialties like lollipops with scorpions inside.

In Colombia, people generally toast the ants in salt at community gatherings and eat them as a snack. But there is innovation. Restaurants in Barichara offer an ant-based spread for bread and an ant-flavored lamb sauce.

Stuffed tortilla "atta wraps'' led the menu at a recent tasting at the Montreal Insectarium, an insect museum in Canada.

"In France, they're so highly regarded people started calling them the caviar of Santander,'' said Stephane Le Tirant, curator at the Montreal Insectarium.

During harvest time in Santander, ants by the bagful are sold at almost every roadside stop. But although relatively abundant, they're not cheap—costing as much as $11 a pound.

The culona is a source of regional pride, its image gracing everything from the logo of a long-distance bus company to the provincial La Culona lottery. It also connects locals to the province's indigenous past, when ants were a part of a complex mating ritual of the Guane Indians.

Rising demand from the outside has helped push up prices that peasant harvesters are getting.

"A few years ago they cost half as much,'' said Hernando Medina, the province's main exporter.

Not everyone is cashing in. Jorge Raul Diaz maintains 37 ant colonies on a small farm outside Barichara, but in homage to native culture, he gives them away.

During last year's harvest, he organized the first culona-gathering contest, in which 22 participants competed over two months to see who could bag the most insects.

Carmen Rondon, a jovial 71-year-old cleaning woman, finished second and won an electric blender.

She no longer eats the ants, because of a near toothless mouth, but Rondon says she eagerly awaits the yearly hunt, when she scrambles about on hands and knees while ants crawl up and down her legs.

"Whenever the culonas come out, I'm there the first day!'' she said.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

Alma del Norte says on Friday March 21st, 2008 21:08:

I thought about exporting Tarantulas to the UK where big ones go for about £150 but I wouldn't want to harm the reserves here. I wonder if people in other parts of the world really dig beatles. Food for thought. Thanks DD

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 21:37:

Ah sorry but I wouldn't pay a cent for this...oh....gross...I can't have a huge insect as a pet....

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

goin_south says on Friday March 21st, 2008 21:41:

Dog... I envision:
... "NEGOCIAS NUEVAS GRINGOS DE COLOMBIA, INC.''
what about crawfish?
do they grow down there???
gators of the Amazon?
Keep that pipeline full of new ideas.
and, THANX.

NO MAS........ MARINERO YERRI'S... ;-(

DodgerDogs says on Friday March 21st, 2008 21:46:

GS, You could make little pato rojo charms and braclets. Gente aqui would buy them up to
ward of the evil eye ( Mal Ojo ).

They would need to be smaller version this joya
( I stole this foto from the net, I do not know the baby )

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 21:48:

Mal ojo!! I had that when I was a little baby/girl...(the charm I mean!)

Awe...who's the cute baby?
Ha, I like her patito!!

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

DodgerDogs says on Friday March 21st, 2008 21:53:

Almost every child here under 5 has a red bracelet of thread or other material.

I would not let my wife put them on our kids, and almost started a family fight when I cut them off my Sabrinos and Sabrinos and primos and primas.

God protects children not thread, and when you use common sence and good hygene a baby will usally do just fine.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

goin_south says on Friday March 21st, 2008 21:59:

oh, jeeeeze... Dog... some people need a 'point of contact'... jaj

NO MAS........ MARINERO YERRI'S... ;-(

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 21:59:

I agree with you DD, but remember superstition there. My mother also says that my father (not Colombian) would cut mine off, he was so against it! He finally gave in when my mother put a gold one on me...which I still have saved!

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

DodgerDogs says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:07:

Those superstitions here about Babys drive me nuts, some women believe you have to keep
the bay and the mother inside 40 days, and many walk around in 80 degree weather with
a diaper on their heads to prevent the evil wind from entering their soul.

The other superstitions about Ironing clothes and not getting wet, and many other superstitions are crazy but I respect them.

I just speak up when it comes to the baby's and recent birth Mothers, and only for health reasons. ( as more then once I have seen Mothers here give their newborns a drink with
cow feces in it to ward of illness )

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:13:

I know DD, I went crazy when I saw what some of my own cousins did with their babies, like walking around 80 degrees and the baby covered from head to toe..

My mother says that she had to put my feet in the sun to make them strong when I was a month old!? When she told me this I laughed and asked her if she really did that to me, my cousin had a picture of it...AmAZING I told my mother...how backwards people can be with their superstitions...but I supposed to each his own?

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

goin_south says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:25:

" I have seen Mothers here give their newborns a drink with cow feces in it to ward of illness".....jeje...
hey,... DD... I guess probably, there's a FEW cases, where it's worked, huh? jaj

NO MAS........ MARINERO YERRI'S... ;-(

DodgerDogs says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:29:

GS, I dont know if it worked, but here those Wayu and Tayarona madres do the strangest things to their babys.
Sort of like them Bayou marie laveaux types in Lafayete.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:32:

Sorry but that is a bit TOO much for me...Uyyy

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

goin_south says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:33:

a FEW cases, where it's worked

okay... you knuckleheads.... I meant... that, tongue in cheek...
the human body and survival are some VERY AMAZING MECHANISMS...

NO MAS........ MARINERO YERRI'S... ;-(

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:37:

GS...geez boy relax!!
I know it works, I know there are many cultures where they do things we would never think possible..so calmadito patito! OR I will have to go ruffle those feathers!! Je je

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

goin_south says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:41:

oh... a new handle for the duck:
PatitoCalmadito...jjaj

NO MAS........ MARINERO YERRI'S... ;-(

DodgerDogs says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:42:

GS, here is a sample of a Indio family.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:43:

DD great example, but there are still weird customs/beliefs in the entire continent!!

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

goin_south says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:45:

ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE

NO MAS........ MARINERO YERRI'S... ;-(

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:46:

Go get a drink GS...

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

DodgerDogs says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:46:

GS, the Fuerte y Suerte viva siempre

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

goin_south says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:47:

NO MAS........ MARINERO YERRI'S... ;-(

goin_south says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:48:

you twisted my wrist ;-))

NO MAS........ MARINERO YERRI'S... ;-(

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:53:

Ah GS....I LOVE ELVIS!! Good pick!!

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

goin_south says on Friday March 21st, 2008 22:59:

only 'cause I couldn't rememba the name of the original artist...
some black dude from the 60's????

NO MAS........ MARINERO YERRI'S... ;-(

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 23:03:

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

DodgerDogs says on Friday March 21st, 2008 23:03:

GS, It was Jerry Butler who song that song, and they are both( him and Elvis)
on the famous " Duck Walk Hall of Fame " in Memphis in front of the Peabody hotel.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 23:05:

GS Jerry Butler?

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

MaFe says on Friday March 21st, 2008 23:06:

DD you beat me to it!

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

DodgerDogs says on Friday March 21st, 2008 23:08:

Jerry Butler

Elvis at the Duckwalk

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

goin_south says on Friday March 21st, 2008 23:54:

I'm honored.

NO MAS........ MARINERO YERRI'S... ;-(

deathnova says on Saturday March 22nd, 2008 9:46:

I'd pay $130 *not* to have one of those.

adrimm says on Saturday March 22nd, 2008 11:55:

Does anyone else think that this could be somewhat dangerous? If they become too popular, escapees could become established in other parts of the world...

*I'd* hate to have to run into one of those beetles unawares.. not to mention the havoc introduced species can create on other ecosystems.

MaFe says on Saturday March 22nd, 2008 13:24:

Can you imagine being stuck in a remote area sorrounded by those things?

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again." -Winston Churchill

goin_south says on Saturday March 22nd, 2008 14:10:

nope.

NO MAS........ MARINERO YERRI'S... ;-(

msaucey says on Saturday March 22nd, 2008 14:13:

I scream like a lil beatch when I see flying cockroaches... Imagine one of these mofo's!... hell no!

The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. - CS Lewis

Atrevido says on Saturday March 22nd, 2008 19:02:

Those beetles don´t do anything that would bother a human being. They break down wood. However I think that post of DD showing an Indian girl cooking a baby in a pot is really disgusting.

DodgerDogs says on Saturday March 22nd, 2008 19:05:

The indio baby is bathing.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.Martin Luther King:

Lowell says on Sunday March 23rd, 2008 11:01:

and the suckers can fly?

Alfred E. Newman. "What. Me Worry?"