Early bird catches the worm

Since the start of the rainy season hordes of men and women have been spotted with colourful buckets along the road between Rehoboth and Omeya, hunting for mopane worms. According to Cornelia Geronimos, one of the early birds who arrive at the turn-off to Oamites at dawn every day, the worms disappear by the end of February. This green mopane worm lives on a bush named okadilanghono, which is commonly known in the central and southern parts of the country as the wag-'n-bietjie (buffalo thorn) bush. Geronimos, like most of the harvesters, collect the worms in ten-litre paint buckets which they then take back to Windhoek for their own consumption or to sell. Namibian Sun found her climbing a tree to get to some of the juiciest worms, each of which measures about 4cm. “I can sell them to people that want them, but for now I am collecting for my house and my family to eat. If I do sell it then I charge N$20 for a 250ml glass container,” she explained as she removed the guts of the caterpillars. The women who arrive at around 05:00 usually retire to a nearby tree at noon to monitor their catch and to start cleaning the worms. “We must start early because at a certain time they go into the ground where they eventually turn into a butterfly which we have no use for. So we must just catch them while they are still in the trees,” she explained. She pointed at a brown-and-yellow butterfly, which according to her is what these particular green worms morph into. The Gonimbrasia belina, which is commonly known as the mopane worm, is the larva of a species of emperor moth which is native to the warmer parts of southern Africa. Namibia is home to 14% of the mopane worm's range in the region. The moth's edible caterpillar feeds primarily but not exclusively on mopane tree leaves. In Namibia the trees are commonly found in the northern and north-eastern parts of the country where the caterpillars are regarded as a delicacy. The mopane worm has incredible nutritional value and around 80 of these caterpillars can provide 192% of a person's daily protein requirements, 360% of daily calcium needs and over 15 000% of the iron requirements. It is also low in fat. The caterpillars, whether mopane worms or not, are generally served dried or cooked and sold at open markets. They are mainly eaten with pap. JEMIMA BEUKES

Early bird catches the worm

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-03

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Early bird catches the worm

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-03

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