Cambodia fears tarantula may go off menu
Skun, Cambodia: While a plate piled high with hairy, palm- sized tarantulas is the stuff of nightmares for some, these garlic fried spiders are a coveted treat in Cambodia, where the only fear is that they may soon vanish due to deforestation and unchecked hunting.
Taking a bite out of the plump arachnids has become a popular photo- op for squealing tourists who pass through Skun, the central Cambodian town nicknamed “Spiderville” for its massive market of creepy crawlers.
But the bulk of the clientele are locals who are there to load up on a traditional snack known as “aping” that vendors say is becoming scarce — and more expensive — as rapid development wipes out jungle habitats. “Aping are famous in Cambodia but now they are not abundant, they have become rare,” Chea Voeun, a tarantula vendor, said from her stall where she sells other fried insects including crickets and scorpions.
Voeun, who has been selling the delicacy for 20 years, used to source the spiders from nearby forests, where hunters dug them out of burrows dotting the jungle floor.
But those trees have since been razed for cashew nut plantations, forcing Voeun and other vendors to rely on middlemen to procure the spiders, harvested from faraway forested provinces.
Tarantulas have been part of the Cambodian diet for generations, prized for their purported medicinal qualities. But they are believed to have cemented their place on the Cambodian palate during the brutal years under the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s.