Satiated Culprit

[J CRAB]

Here is a pic of a tomato eating machine! TOMATO WORM1.jpg

[nicky]

Ugg. I found my first one ever this year.

hornworm1.jpg

I couldn't believe how big they are & how quickly they eat.

[maf]

Are they edible? They would look good stir fried with shrimp and multi-colored vegetables.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by maf

Are they edible? They would look good stir fried with shrimp and multi-colored vegetables.

Just in case that wasn't a joke. No they are not.

[maf]

It was a serious question, albeit a good humoured one.

I decided to look it up and it turns out they are edible. If they are going to be killed anyway why not eat them?

Hornworm: David George Gordon, author of The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook, says that Tomato Hornworms can be fried up much the same as the fruit of the plant on which they feed. They taste a bit like green tomatoes, shrimp, and crab.

from: List of Edible Insects, Girl Meets Bug

Or how about a recipe?
Fried Green Tomato Hornworms from Bert Christensen's Weird & Different Recipes.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by maf

I decided to look it up and it turns out they are edible. If they are going to be killed anyway why not eat them?


from: List of Edible Insects, Girl Meets Bug

Or how about a recipe?
Fried Green Tomato Hornworms from Bert Christensen's Weird & Different Recipes.

WOW! See now that is a complete surprise to me. My old books say the tomato hornworm's primary defence is from concentrating the toxins found in tomato leaves! (being tomatoes are a nightshade).

I guess you learn something new every day.

Thanks for the twisted new knowledge.

[J CRAB]

Cook one up, and let us know how it is. Maybe saute it in olive oil and garlic

Bon Apetite !

[Garf]

I believe I'll pass on this one.

[gixxerific]

Maf you are ate up.

Love it. LOL

[tam91]

They are full of tons of green slime. I squished one, and ewwwww.

You could have had a whole meal here, I had 7 of the things at once.

[nicky]

I thought the same thing as Redbaron, so I didn't feed them to the hens. I don't know how you would eat one. Slimy, gooey inside. Uggg. Strangley beautiful though.

[clkeiper]

I feed them to my hens all the time. I haven't seen anyone get sick from them. They fight over them.

[mikej]

This ole southern redneck in the sticks will eat alot of strange critters, but shaw ain't gonna try that one.

[livinonfaith]

We have a Bug Fest in Raleigh every year, complete with free food made with insects. I tried a couple of the mealworm dishes and an ant dish. The mealworms weren't too bad. The ants were kinda gross.

My son and his dad both ate the fried grasshoppers, but I just couldn't. Way too creepy with those big heads and legs!

They have these big white grub things in Africa that the local people eat and I've always wondered if those are good. The cooked ones I saw did remind me a little of shrimp. But hornworms just don't look tasty to me at all.

Of course, that will be good information to have when the Zombie Apocalypse happens!

[rockhound]

I haven't eaten one yet so I don't know if I would like them. Knowing the toxins in tomato leaves are concentrated in the worm is gonna be my reason for not trying them. Yup, that'll work.