You’ve probably eaten hamburgers, turkey burgers, even veggie burgers; but I bet you’ve never had a FLY BURGER!
note: despite the video title, the insects are midge flies, not mosquitos.
The largest swarm of flies in the world hails from Lake Victoria, where trillions of midge flies swarm each month for mating.
Local residents didn’t want the easy to catch protein go to waste, so started the tradition of making midge fly BURGERS.
The Unbelievable Midge Fly
Midge flies are pretty unbelievable.
- They beat their wings over a thousand times a second.
- Can survive temperatures below -160° F.
- Their larvae have been found in open water – 5,300 feet below the surface of the deepest lake in the world!
The Lake Victoria residents take a monthly break to gather the flies—and they’re not alone. Entire flocks of birds make monthly sojourns to the lake for a free meal.
Using dampened pots and pans, they collect the flies and shape them into burger patties.
Each fly burger contains:
- 500,000 flies
- 7 times the protein of a normal beef burger!
By Adolson13 from Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
A Similar Fly Swarm
In Central Pennsylvania, the North American Mayfly swarms in such large numbers that they have shown up on weather sensing radars!
The passing bugs have caused auto accidents and road closures. Bridges have had to be cleared with snow plows!
Despite their massive swarms, the mayfly is only capable of flight for a few hours before it dies, leaving a slippery mess to clean up.
Pennsylvania may need to look at the Victoria Lake residents for help, and start making some of their own Pennsylvania Mayfly burgers.
Huh… hey look… there’s a perfectly good chicken… preening its feathers… just wasting away.