After years of trying to control the invasive lychee giant stink bug population by spraying and offering bounties, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency on Tuesday encouraged people to join its efforts to eradicate the insect by learning how to cook and eat them.
Lychee giant stink bugs, which were first spotted on Taiwan’s main island in 2009, are commonly found during the summer on trees belonging to the soapberry family, including longans, lychees, flamegold rain trees and wingleaf soapberries.
As a defense mechanism, the bugs release a corrosive, stinky liquid that can burn through leaves and fruit, which has in the past few years become an increasing problem for Taiwan’s longan and lychee farmers.
Photo courtesy of the Forestry and Natural Conservation Agency’s Chiayi branch
To control them, local governments have tried, with varying degrees of success, using drones to spray orchards with saponins — bitter, plant-derived organic chemicals — and offering bounties for the insect’s eggs.
However, since lychee giant stink bugs are edible and a good source of protein, people can also help “eradicate [the insects] by eating them,” Lee Ting-chung (李定忠), deputy head of the agency’s Chiayi branch office, said on Tuesday.
To help promote the stink bugs as a food source, Lee said his office would hold classes at Chiayi’s Chukou Nature Center on April 27 and May 11.
Attendees would learn how to identify and remove lychee giant stink bugs and how to cook them — as well as several other common insects — using a handful of easy recipes, he said.
Although eating insects is not common in Taiwan, it is part of the food cultures of hundreds of millions of people around the world, Lee said.
Lychee giant stink bugs, in particular, are eaten across parts of Southeast Asia and China, he said.
More information on the classes and how to register is available on the Chukou Nature Center’s Facebook page.
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