This type of egg is tiny, very rich in protein, and nutritious, so even though it is sold at a high price of up to $18 / kg, it still “sold out”.
At this time, weaver ant eggs are at the end of the season, the number is not much. Mr. Van Chuong (Binh Phuoc) who has been selling ant eggs for nearly 6 years said that every day he can only buy about 10-12kg of ant eggs, so he is always in a state of no goods to send to customers.
“My customers are everywhere in many provinces and cities across the country, some people buy them to make dishes to enjoy, and some people use ant eggs to feed birds and fish. They take a few pounds at a time, so they sell out very quickly, those who order late have to wait the next day,” he said.
Ant eggs are taken from ant nests on pomelo, rubber, cashew …
He said that the ant eggs he sells are completely taken from the wild, so the quantity is not much, not to mention when it rains, people can’t get them. On normal days, around 5 am, some people go to the forest or to the orchards to find ant nests.
According to him, weaver ants often live on pomelo, cashew, rubber trees… so people will look for these trees first. The device for collecting ant eggs is a long pole and a cloth bag or sack. When discovering an ant nest, people will use a long pole to poke the nest and shake it so that the ant eggs fall into the bag.
“From one nest to another, each nest can collect at most about 1 ounce of ant eggs. On average, people also have to earn 2-5kg of eggs every day, bringing in an income of 300,000-500,000 VND/day,” he said.($1=25,000 VND)
Therefore, people around the area where he lives invite each other to collect ant eggs in the forest a lot. They are not too difficult to get for experienced people, and beginners will be quite uncomfortable when stung by ants.
Collecting eggs, he had to shake off the ants and then start freezing the eggs for long-distance transportation.
After buying ant eggs from people, he has to filter out the ants, leaving the ant eggs. After that, he will freeze and transport to places.
He said eggs have 3 seasons a year, on December 15, there will be queen eggs – this egg is the largest but the price is the lowest. Next, the black ant egg season and around July are the weaver ant eggs. Yellow glass eggs are small in size and fragrant, so people prefer them because feeding the fish is more suitable.
The wholesale price of eggs for customers at this time is about 250,000 VND / kg, while retail ranges from 350,000 to 400,000 VND / kg, sometimes up to 450,000 VND / kg.
Also selling ant eggs for 3 years, Ms. Huong (Luc Ngan, Bac Giang) said that this type of egg is loved by many people because it can process many delicious and strange dishes.
“Customers often buy to make stir-fried ant eggs with leaves, sticky rice with ant eggs or ant egg cakes… These eggs are very nutritious, so customers order a lot, I only have about 5kg per day, just enough to deliver to orders. from the day before,” she said.
Because it is in season, she sells ant eggs for 250,000 VND/kg.
Ant eggs are delicious, and nutritious, but can also cause allergies for users.
According to physician Vu Quoc Trung (a member of the Vietnam Association of Oriental Medicine), fresh ant eggs are collected from ant nests in the forest, so they are rich in protein, nutritious, and help improve health.
However, they are easy to cause allergies for people to eat because they are rich in protein. Ants often live in humid places, so they can contain many parasites and bacteria, causing a high risk of poisoning when eaten.
This physician recommends that people with a history of allergies to insects should consider when eating ant eggs. In particular, ant eggs should not be eaten when they have not been cleaned carefully.
Photo: Internet (vinlove.net)