I licked an ant's butt
Disclaimer: No ants were harmed in the tasting of this ant butt.
I'm periodically re-visiting our Australia honeymoon because it was AWESOME. I can't believe I forgot to post about this. On our tour of the Daintree Rainforest in NW Queensland, I did something I've never done and likely never will do again. I licked the rear end of an ant. This particular ant is the Green Tree Ant (Oecophylla smaragdina), a type of weaver ant. They make their nests by weaving leaves together that are still on the tree. Our tour guide for the day showed us how you can pick one up, touch its hindquarters to your tongue, and receive a nice spray of ascorbic acid. The acid tastes like super strong lemon juice and actually left a little white spot on my tongue. Very odd. Sadly, I couldn't get Beth to try it. I guess I can't blame her.
11 comments:
Tasted lemon ants in the Amazon. We were less kind to them... ants were harmed
Having danced perilously close to the edge for some time, Patrick has finally plummeted over the precipice.
Nope.
Not ever.
@Kiggavik: How were they? Were they cooked?
@OC: I was surprised at how eagerly I picked it up!
@Lynne: It was better than vegemite.
Erm... no thanks! I'm with Beth on this one!
@Kiggavik: Coincidentally, an episode of "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" was on today from Ecuador. He ate lemon ants!
OK - I don't think you would get a lot of people saying thise (yes, a few - but not many) that is so COOL! (And I love that you - or your wife - had the forethought to preserve this particular memory forever in a photo!)
They were very lemony. Little bursts of lemon flavour. And no they weren't cooked, or dead. But in case anyone worries about a big old human like me picking on small insects I'd like to point out that several species of ants tried to eat me on different occassions while I was down there.
Sorry I missed the Bizarre Eats show.
LOL! I guess turnabout is fair play. I hope none of them were bullet ants.
I have that very species in my home garden. Consequences are nasty if you mishandle them.
Nope, I saw a lot of bullet ants and have a real interesting story about bullet ants and bats and a woman in her 70s showing much more fortitude than me. Perhaps I'll post about it one of these days.
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