Hunting “flying shrimp” in the field, earning millions every day

These days, many people in Nghe An ride motorbikes for hundreds of kilometers to the fields in Ha Tinh to hunt “flying shrimp”. On average, every day minus expenses, people pocket millions.

At this time, the number of locusts appeared in the fields of Ha Tinh quite a lot. This is also the right time for many Nghe An farmers to cross hundreds of kilometers to hunt. This insect is a specialty of people drinking with the beautiful name “flying shrimp”.

Observation shows that the tools for catching locusts are very simple, just need a giant racket, 60 x 70 cm wide mouth, 1.5m long racket bag. With this racket, just wave your hand after a few rounds in the field, there will be hundreds of locusts lying in the bottom of the racket.

This “flying shrimp” hunt starts from April to September every year. According to the experience of the people, if you want to catch this species easily, you have to wait until the dew stops, because when the rice stalks are covered with dew, the grasshoppers will be stuck and can’t jump and fly.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha (in Yen Thanh, Nghe An) said that in the annual rice season, locusts are like a “grass enemy” that destroys crops, but has high economic value. Therefore, in the season of preparing to harvest rice, people come together to catch grasshoppers, both to protect the crops, and to bring back a good harvest.

“From the beginning of the season until now, traders buy at a very high price, so my family earns from 1.5 to 2 million VND every day. If I work hard to go far, this income will last for the whole month, no job. You can earn a higher income while at the same time protecting your crops,” Ha said.

When asked about his experience in hunting a lot of locusts, Mr. Ho Tai, (in Quynh Luu, Nghe An) shared, this job requires hard work and perseverance, people need to exploit the areas where locusts are abundant. . Currently, people are fighting according to their experience to explore in the field, if they see a lot of locusts flying, they immediately gather people to set traps; The most important thing is how to set the trap in the right direction for the locusts to fly in.

When the locusts are finished, people will put them in a mesh bag to store, then select each type to sell to birders. Because it is a species with good nutrients for birds, many people buy it and sell it every day.

This specialty hunting “flying shrimp” does not affect the rice crop, but also contributes to crop protection, so it is supported by the local people wherever they go.

Ms. Ho Thi Linh (in Quynh Luu) said: “My wife and 2 neighbors got up at 3 am, after preparing tools, got on a motorbike and drove nearly 100km into Nghi Xuan district (Ha Tinh) to catch grasshoppers. Regularly for nearly a month, the job of my wife and I and two partners is to get up early in the morning and come home late in the afternoon.

According to Ms. Linh, grasshoppers are bought by traders at very high prices, averaging from 200,000 VND to 250,000 VND/kg. In one season, she and her husband earned hundreds of millions of dong, not less, in this season alone, about 20 days, they earned 50 million dong.

Locusts, which are insects that destroy crops of farmers, are now considered a specialty of the countryside. This is what makes the price of “flying shrimp” expensive during this time.