Now that society is no longer what it used to be, the rapid development of science and technology and the Internet have greatly facilitated the daily lives of many people and connected many places. Especially in rural areas, many places have long since escaped poverty and moved towards a well-off society, people's lives have been greatly improved, many village farmers have also come to the city to work and earn money, and the family's life has slowly improved.
However, although the quality of life has improved, some living habits and eating habits have not changed. Many friends, especially those living in the southern countryside, like to eat bamboo shoots, and bamboo shoots are indeed a very delicious food. And in addition to bamboo shoots, bamboo uses are also very much, in the past many places of villagers are very skillful, bamboo is made into a lot of practical objects: bamboo rafts, bamboo baskets, bamboo baskets, their own grinding bamboo chopsticks, etc., for many rural friends The value of bamboo is too great. Although bamboo is the "exclusive food" of the national treasure giant panda in the eyes of many people, what many people don't know is that in the past, there was a kind of "scourge" bamboo bug that caused many farmers a headache, but now it is very expensive, what is it, we will take a look.
This insect is called "bamboo elephant", there are many aliases in different places, many places call it "bamboo shoot worm", "weevil worm", etc., its shape is very interesting, the head of the horn, a bit like the unicorn fairy, but the horn is much smaller than the unicorn fairy, but like the elephant's nose, people call it the weevil. Its body color is different from the one-horned fairy, it is golden and slightly brownish, and there are black patterns on its wings, which are not very large.
Don't look at it as small, but it is the number one natural enemy of bamboo and bamboo shoots, because it lives exclusively in bamboo forests and eats bamboo shoots and bamboo for a living.
The general bamboo elephant will lay eggs on the bamboo shoots or at its roots, so that the larvae will be born inside the bamboo shoots, slowly grow by eating the juice of the bamboo shoots, and then become pupae, and finally break the pupa and become bamboo elephant shoots, and the bamboo shoots will continue to eat the bamboo shoots and slowly grow into bamboo elephant adults, at this time the basic bamboo shoots will die. And the horn of the bamboo elephant is not for good looks, it is actually its mouth, such a long mouth can easily pierce into the bamboo shoot inside the bamboo shoot to suck the bamboo juice, or directly eat the bamboo, so basically a bamboo shoot or bamboo meets the bamboo elephant, then death is sooner or later, so in the past the peasant friends are very disgusted with these bugs, see it and immediately step on it.
However, although bamboo elephants are harmful to bamboo, they are indeed the toys of rural children. At that time, rural children had few toys, and they would often catch some bamboo elephants and tie their feet with ropes to make them fly, just like flying kites, which was very fun. And in the summer, some rural children will also break the front foot of the bamboo elephant, insert it into the severed limb with a thin bamboo stick, and then start to fly as soon as it is shaken, and after flying, it will blow out a cool breeze, and the children also use it as a fan, which is also the memory of many rural young and middle-aged people.
But unlike before, this pest, which used to be trampled to death by villagers, has now become a rare game, and even many peasant friends have specially cultivated bamboo elephants. Because both the larvae and adults of bamboo elephants are wild edible insects, the body is rich in vitamins and proteins, whether it is roasted or fried is very delicious, many people also like to eat. Moreover, bamboo elephant is also a Chinese herbal medicine for the treatment of rheumatism. Now there are fewer bamboo elephants in the wild, most of them are farmed, so the price is also very high, ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan a catty (for reference only).
Don't know if friends played with or ate bamboo elephants when they were young? How does it taste? Welcome everyone to comment more, like please pay attention to it, every day to update everyone different rural new things!