An estimated 2 billion people across more than 100 countries eat insects as a regular part of their diet. The practice is most common in three broad regions: Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. Within those regions, certain countries stand out for how deeply insect eating is woven into everyday food culture rather than treated as a novelty.
Thailand and Southeast Asia
Thailand is the global epicenter of insect consumption. Edible insects are available in local markets and in the wild year-round, and the country has built a significant farming industry around species like crickets to keep supply consistent even outside natural harvest seasons. The most commonly eaten insects include crickets, grasshoppers, silkworm pupae, bamboo caterpillars, palm weevils, red ants, giant water bugs, and cicadas. You can find them fried at street stalls, mixed into curries, or sold as packaged snacks in convenience stores.
Beyond Thailand, insect eating is widespread across the region. Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar all have strong traditions. In Cambodia, fried tarantulas are a well-known regional specialty, while in Laos and Myanmar, various beetles and ant larvae appear in everyday cooking.
Mexico and Latin America
Mexico has one of the richest and oldest insect-eating traditions in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in the southern state of Oaxaca. Chapulines (grasshoppers) are so central to Oaxacan identity that locals describe them not as health food but as culture itself. They’re harvested from alfalfa and corn fields during the rainy season from May through October, then toasted with garlic, lime, and chili. You’ll find them stuffed into quesadillas, folded into omelets, sprinkled over tamales, and blended into salsas and mole sauces.
Chicatanas, a type of flying ant, are even more seasonal. They emerge for just one or two days after the first heavy rains in June, when their underground nests burst open. Families collect them quickly and grind them into rich, smoky salsas that can be stored and eaten with tortillas for weeks. Escamoles, the larvae of a particular ant species, are sometimes called “Mexican caviar” and appear in high-end restaurants alongside traditional home kitchens. Brazil is another major consumer in the region, along with Colombia, where large-bottomed ants called hormigas culonas are roasted and eaten as a snack in the Santander department.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Insect consumption stretches across much of the African continent, but it’s especially common in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Uganda, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, and Rwanda. The specific insects vary by region, but two stand out as dietary staples across the widest area: mopane worms and termites.
Mopane worms are actually caterpillars that feed on mopane trees in the dry regions of southern Africa. They’re harvested, dried, and sold in enormous quantities at markets across South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, and Angola. The most popular preparation is boiling and then roasting them, and they’re eaten as a side dish or relish at household meals. For many families, selling dried mopane worms is also a meaningful source of income.
Termites are consumed even more broadly, from Benin and Cameroon in West Africa through Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa and down to Zambia and Zimbabwe in the south. Soldier termites are typically roasted until crunchy. In South Africa’s Venda region, several termite species are eaten as a regular relish alongside starchy staples. Other commonly consumed insects across the continent include grasshoppers, jewel beetles, stink bugs, and various ant species.
East Asia: Japan, South Korea, and China
China has a long history of insect eating, particularly in rural and southern provinces, where silkworm pupae, bee larvae, and various beetles appear in regional dishes. South Korea has its own entomophagy tradition, most visibly in beondegi, steamed or boiled silkworm pupae sold as street food and canned snacks. Surveys show South Koreans are notably more open to insect foods than populations in countries without these traditions.
Japan’s relationship with insect eating is more localized. Historically, insects were an important protein source in mountainous inland areas where seafood and livestock were scarce. Nagano Prefecture remains the heartland of this tradition, where roughly 82% of residents have eaten insects at some point, compared to about 52% in the coastal Kanto region around Tokyo. Traditional dishes include inago (rice grasshoppers simmered in soy sauce and sugar) and hachinoko (wasp larvae). That said, most modern Japanese don’t eat insects regularly. Only about 7 to 16% say they’d willingly substitute insects for meat or fish, depending on the region.
How Insects Compare Nutritionally
Part of the reason insects remain dietary staples in so many countries is their nutritional density. Dried mopane worm caterpillars pack about 35 grams of protein per 100-gram serving, significantly more than beef sirloin at 20 grams or chicken breast at 21.5 grams. Mealworm larvae come in at about 25 grams of protein per 100 grams, also beating most conventional meats. House crickets land around 15 to 20 grams depending on their life stage, roughly comparable to pork or veal.
Iron content is where certain insects really pull ahead. Mopane worms contain a remarkable 51 milligrams of iron per 100 grams, compared to 3.1 for beef and just 0.4 for chicken breast. Crickets offer 5 to 9 milligrams, still well above most meats. Vitamin B12 is one area where insects fall short: most species contain less than 1 microgram per 100 grams, while beef provides 1.4 and rabbit nearly 8.
Over 1,900 edible insect species have been identified worldwide by the Food and Agriculture Organization. The most commonly eaten groups are beetles, caterpillars and moths, bees and ants, grasshoppers and crickets, and termites.
How Insects Are Prepared
Across all these regions, traditional preparation methods are strikingly similar. The most common approaches are roasting, frying, boiling, sun-drying, steaming, and stewing. In many cultures, insects are seasoned and eaten whole as snacks or side dishes. In others, they’re ground into flour or powder and mixed into sauces, porridges, or baked goods, which makes them unrecognizable as insects in the final product.
Heat-based preparation isn’t just about flavor. Boiling and roasting are the most effective methods for eliminating harmful bacteria, including Salmonella and Staphylococcus, along with yeasts and molds. Sun-drying extends shelf life dramatically, which is why dried mopane worms and roasted chapulines can be stored and traded over long distances. In Thailand, commercially farmed crickets go through standardized processing that mirrors food safety practices for any other protein source.
A Growing Global Market
While insect eating has deep roots in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the global market is expanding rapidly. The edible insect industry was valued at roughly $3 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $9.16 billion by 2035, growing at about 25% per year. Much of that growth is driven by Western countries in Europe and North America, where insects are increasingly sold as protein bars, cricket flour, and animal feed rather than whole insects. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Finland have been early adopters in Europe, creating regulatory frameworks for insect-based food products.
Still, the vast majority of insects eaten worldwide are consumed in the countries where they’ve been part of the food culture for centuries or longer. For roughly 2 billion people, eating bugs isn’t a trend. It’s dinner.