I am again awake in the middle of the night, this time foiled by my friends and family in Thailand; I got a call about an hour ago and so I am going to try and post my way back to sleepiness.
So I thought I’d learn how to upload and post my own google video: time-consuming, but really very easy. I picked up these two up from Sue in Bangkok. The first is a video of Sue’s friend Sangmain giving a little background information on three popular kinds of fried snack insects: bamboo worm, grasshopper, and silkworm. The second is of Sue chomping down her favorite fried bug.
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6907932859519849631]
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=664841831215329761]
An interesting factoid about silkworms: I imagine that there are lots of silkworms to eat because I know that the silkworm must be boiled alive in its cocoon, in order to unwind one long, unbroken thread of silk. Just think – there must be vats of soggy boiled silkworms in silk factories. I learned this in a young adult novel that featured a Korean girl working in silk factory called… hmmm, forgotten the title.
and a silkworm anecdote:
In our homeschooling days, Bella and I met many curious and adventurous homeschooling families doing all kinds of science projects at home. One such family was raising silk moths from eggs. To my surprise (because I just associate “moth” with “infestation”) the silk moths were all hanging about on a large egg carton under a lamp in the living room; there was no cage or screen, no nothing. My friend explained that silk moths are born with grossly deformed wings which prevent them from flying away. They are in effect, bonded silk slaves, born only to produce more silkworm eggs.
There were silkworms inching about as well – they were obliviously munching on mulberry leaves. As they eat nothing but mulberry leaves, the children had been hopping a fence of a local school yard and gathering trashbags full of mulberry leaves for the past several weeks.
There were silkworm cocoons as well and we were generously offered a couple to take home. The white cocoons were about an inch long and soft and billowy; they were, after all, made of pure silk. Bella and I were excited and fascinated. We brought them home and left them in a cup on the counter, because where does one one keep silkworm cocoons anyway? The kitchen counter seemed fine, the motionless cocoons weren’t going anywhere.
The next morning, Bella and I were discussing where we were going to track down mulberry leaves when we noticed that the cocoons were gone. The cup was empty. We thought maybe the moths had emerged? But there were no cocoons nor moths anywhere to be seen. We searched the entire kitchen, but the cocoons had just completely vanished.
It drove me crazy, but there was nothing to do – it was simply an unsolved mystery.
TWO MONTHS LATER…
I moved Bella’s bed out of the way to vacuum and there were both the cocoons tucked into the deepest corner of her bedroom floor. I was unnerved to say the least; had my daughter developed strange klepto tendencies? How otherwise could two immobile silkworm cocoons move across an entire house and hide under a bed? When I finally examined the cocoons closely after much toe prodding, I had my answer. Both cocoons had the ends nibbled off (imagine how many pieces of silk thread it would be to try and unravel those!) and both cocoons were empty. I devised a theory: a mouse must have discovered the silkworm cocoons (by smell?) and carried them off and ate them under Bella’s bed during the night. I guess the Thai aren’t the only ones who appreciate a good silkworm.