Crunchy and tempting, these plump ant queens are as prized in Colombia as caviar is in European countries. To obtain them, however, you must first overcome the defenses of the soldier ants, which bite very painfully.
In Barichara, a picturesque colonial town in the Colombian Andes, the most important day of the year is not Christmas, New Year’s or Easter. The locals eagerly await their most important day, which they affectionately call La Salida, meaning “the exit. When it arrives, this impatience reaches its limit – it is physically palpable in the paved streets of Barichara with its white stone houses. Street cleaners and housewives simply quit their jobs, children run away from school with or without reason, and owners of city shops disappear without a trace, as if they never existed. The city becomes empty. All of the city’s residents go to extract the exceptionally valuable hormigas culonas, or “big-bottomed ants,” which are known in Colombia as the caviar of the department of Santander. This widespread madness grips the city every spring, when millions of ants are ready to hatch in the surrounding anthills. “Here, as they say, the early bird catches the worm,” says Margarita Igwera, a psychologist who changed professions and became a cook when she moved to Barichara in 2000. “If you manage to put your bucket on the anthill – that’s it, it’s yours, and it doesn’t matter whose land it is. “La Salida’ (Spanish for ‘The Departure’) occurs in March or April, when sunny days replace heavy rains and the full moon rises. This marks the beginning of the ant mating season, which lasts for two months. During these weeks, the locals try to collect as many ant colonies as possible. Brown, queen-sized, full of eggs and ready to reproduce, they are highly prized for their flavor, reminiscent of either peanuts or corn flakes. And when they are roasted and salted, then – crispy bacon.
Barichara is considered one of the most beautiful towns in Colombia. Once a year it is empty: all its inhabitants go on an ant hunt. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. Episodes End of story. Podcast advertising.
“From my point of view, the taste is unique,” says Iguera, taking the collected prey from a small jar on the kitchen table and tearing the wings off the ants. “It reminds me of my childhood. Once my grandfather bought a whole barrel and you could hear them rummaging around in it. The whole family sat around the barrel and took them out one by one and tore off their wings. Ant queens are considered a delicacy. They are chewed on the streets, fried on the stoves of working families, and are on the menus of expensive restaurants in Colombia. One kilogram of these insects can be sold for 300,000 pesos (about 65 pounds sterling, about 6,000 rubles) – making them many times more expensive than Colombia’s famous coffee. So it is a solid source of income for the people of Barichara. “By collecting ants, I can earn as much in one day as I usually earn in a week,” says Federico Pedrasa, a street cleaner from Barichara. “But it is hard work. Anthills don’t let you near their queens so easily.”
After harvesting, the locals cut off the wings of the ant queens. I have to put on high rubber boots that cover my ankles, a long-sleeved shirt, and work very quickly because the soldier ants, whose job it is to protect the queen from predators, bite very painfully and until she bleeds. Villagers spread out across the fields, collecting anthills in whatever they can find – bags, jugs, pots, backpacks. The work goes on all day, as long as there is daylight. But the reward for the work is worth it. Atta laevigata, the giant leaf-cutter ants, are an excellent source not only of protein but also of unsaturated fatty acids, which help fight high levels of harmful cholesterol. According to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, ants are full of antioxidants and consuming them regularly helps prevent oncological diseases. “That’s why we, the barricharas, usually live long, healthy lives,” says Cecilia Gonzalez-Quintero, who has owned a store selling ants in glass jars for 20 years. “Ants give us a special strength.”
“The people of the Guane tribe, who once inhabited the central regions of Colombia, began collecting and preparing these insects, called “Hormigas culones”, about 1400 years ago. According to historical records, they consumed them in the department of Santander. They also used sharp pruning shears to close wounds. This practice was later adopted by the Spanish conquistadors. In addition, ants are considered an aphrodisiac here – they are often given in ceramic pots at weddings. In the larger neighboring city of Bucaramanga, metal sculptures of ants have been erected as a tribute to these insects. Colorful images of ants can be found on the walls of many buildings in the city. Taxi drivers stop to buy a bag of crunchy ants, and children play with plush versions of the insects.
Ants have been eaten in the Department of Santander since time immemorial, for more than 1000 years, and for the local population these insects are of great importance, both as a tasty and nutritious food and as a source of income. In recent years, ants have confidently made the transition from a regional delicacy to a must-have ingredient in gourmet dishes. Every spring, trucks loaded with ant queens deliver delicacies to Colombia’s cities. This season, they appear on the menus of the trendiest restaurants in Bogotá, the country’s capital. For example, ants are served alongside smoked Amazonian pirarucu fish dishes. Or they serve as an ingredient in a pepper sauce. “Ants are an important part of Colombian cuisine,” says chef Eduardo Martinez of the Mini-Mall restaurant, who first tasted them as a nine-year-old child during a family trip to Santander. “I don’t want the tradition to die.” However, urbanization and deforestation are causing problems for the Santander ants – and the people who live there. The country’s population is growing, and the interests of the leaf-cutting ants conflict with those of farmers.
“Plump ants are sold in local shops, people eat them at home and in the streets, but more and more often they can be found on the menus of fashionable restaurants. Global climate change is also having a negative impact on the reproductive cycle of ants. Unstable weather and changes in moisture levels disrupt the insects’ normal lives and shift the boundaries of the breeding season. “The ecosystem is changing,” confirms Aura Judith Cuadros, a researcher at the Autonomous University of Bucaramanga who studies methods for sustainable breeding of edible ants. “And if there are no suitable conditions, the ants are either not born at all, or they are born, but they can’t get out of the soil because it’s not moist enough.” However, the disappearance of the ants has not yet happened, and it seems that it will not happen any time soon. When I was in Barichara, Alex Jimenez, a guide and expert on local ants, showed me the life of the leafcutter ants. He stuck a long branch into the entrance of an underground ant nest, and soon several visibly angry soldier ants emerged to see who dared disturb their home and queen. According to Jimenez, there are several thousand ants in each anthill, they can go five meters underground, and if it were possible to straighten out their underground tunnels, they would stretch for kilometers.
Leafcutter ants live in long underground tunnels. The queen ant can live for up to 15 years, but when she dies, the entire colony moves away and builds a new anthill. “These ants have a certain level of natural intelligence,” says Jimenez, pointing to leafcutter ants that carry pieces of leaves. “They work as a unified whole for common survival. They have been doing this for hundreds of years. They are not going to go extinct. A native of Santander recalls how last year, at the height of the ant breeding season, he went on a bicycle ride with friends. Himenes says that under normal circumstances, such a 6-kilometer walk would take about half an hour, but this time it turned into a four-hour gathering of ants – the friends simply could not resist the temptation, and once they started, they could not stop. Along with them, hundreds of local residents were involved in collecting ant nests. “The city smelled of ants that night,” he recalls. You can read the original article on the BBC Travel website.