Southern Thai food, Tha Chang, Surat Thani Province, collecting worms from trees along the sea as a supplementary occupation from fishing, bringing them to roast and sell to generate income.

Villagers in Village No. 3, Khao Than Subdistrict, Tha Chang District, Surat Thani Province, went out to find larvae, a type of butterfly larvae, to roast in salt, or as the villagers call it, roasted larvae with salt, a special menu that is hard to find because it depends on the weather conditions. This time, it is considered to be a 5-6 year break. Larvae can only be found in certain areas with sea buckthorn trees because the larvae will eat the sea buckthorn leaves and wrap themselves in the leaves below. Villagers will look at the larvae’s poop. If there are a lot, they will start collecting because the larvae must first excrete the sap of the sea buckthorn tree because the sap of the sea buckthorn tree can cause loose stools. Therefore, the larvae must excrete all the waste so that they can hatch into pupae before
they can be collected. The price of larvae is 150-200 baht per 100 grams.

The District Chief of Tha Chang ordered officials to collect data and samples to send to entomology experts at Surat Thani Rajabhat University to find ways to develop them into pets to generate additional income for villagers living near the mangrove forest in the future.

Source: Thai News Agency