Incredible Edible Ants!!

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by Super User, 8 years ago
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One of the reasonable tasting and non-toxic insects in Australia is the green weaver ant, or oecophylla smaragdina. It contains ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and so it tastes sour and refreshing, at least the Aborigines thought so - they used green ants to flavor water and for some medicinal purposes. It would take a lot of ants, though, to make up a single day's calorie requirement - something like 75,000 ants.

Thank you to MinutePhysics, Mitch from ASAPscience, Elise from I F'ing Love Science, and Vanessa for her knowledge of the local fauna, which turned out to be correct.