On Monday I heard an item on Radio 4’s Today programme about bees and colony collapse disorder – I can’t quite recall, but I think it may have been something to do with the ‘zombie’ parasite fly honeybee killer reported in Scientific American?
On Tuesday I visited the Royal College of Art Works in Progress preview, where enterprising students offered me some very curious foodstuff – despite the prominently positioned ‘please do not eat’ notices.
We may not share parts of the Far East’s love of deep fried bees, but expect to see organic and locally grown grasshopper pate on the shelves of your local Tesco soon – supplied by ento – The art of eating insects…
On Wednesday I published an article on my website about a curious infestation of insects, created by a talented young ceramicist, who was inspired by the entomology collection at Wollaton Hall.
On Thursday I visited an ENT specialist about my recently broken nose.
On Friday I suddenly realized I hadn’t seen any bees bumbling around for a while – perhaps the freezing weather has something to do with that?
Insects are everywhere – and entomology certainly provides food for thought.
Such is the power of smart packaging that I really could see that Ento idea selling, especially if it was priced very expensively (say, £3.99 for a handful of worms) and labelled ‘Taste the Difference’.
And yes, Earth is in fact an insects’ planet on which a few mammals and others happen to also live.
Ever heard of Pestival, Susan? Yes, it is an insect festival.
http://www.pestival.org/
I didn’t know of this event Gaw (clearly my antenna not working!) Their mission statement ‘insectes sans frontieres’ is a tad scary. I notice that fashion designer Ada Zanditon has been involved with the group – one of her 2010 collections was inspired by Colony Collapse Disorder. I spotted the bug trend a little earlier.
Anteaters know a thing or two about bugs, might be creepy crawlies to us, food and drink to them, taking a rain check on spider sandwiches thank you very much, sticking with shoots, leaves and bacon sarnies.
The RCA students are actually eating food these days? curious, back when they seemed to consume only what came in a bottle.
Bottles made from recycled insects coming soon no doubt, malty…