Thai teacher 'gets rich' by raising palm weevils.

The story of a retired teacher, a Thai woman in Co Muong village, Chau Kim commune, Que Phong district, who raises palm weevils in large quantities for sale on the market, has surprised many. "Seeing is believing," so we set out to investigate one day in mid-September.

The house we visited is located right next to National Highway 16, in the section passing through Co Muong village, Chau Kim commune. The person raising palm weevils is Ms. Lo Thi Cuong (born in 1960). She showed us around the weevil breeding area, revealing rows of green and red plastic containers, each over 50cm in diameter, all covered with wooden planks and neatly arranged on shelves. Ms. Cuong explained that each plastic container holds a nest of palm weevils, and each nest is meticulously documented with the date of stocking for harvesting according to schedule.

Lifting the lid of a plastic basin nearing harvest time for palm weevils, Mrs. Luong flipped over a piece of coconut shell, revealing plump, white weevils, about the size of a finger joint, wriggling in a pile of decaying food. Mrs. Luong explained that the palm weevil's diet consists of coconut shells, chopped sugarcane, fresh cassava, green or ripe bananas, cornmeal, and rice bran. Coconut shells make up the majority of the diet. All the ingredients are mixed together.

Accordingly, each nest contains 20 pairs of queen ants (king ants), and within a week they will lay eggs, which hatch into larvae that are ready for harvest in just 24 days. The larvae are at their best when they are plump, their skin turns yellowish-white, and they are round and round.

“We ask for coconut shells from local drink stalls; they just throw them away anyway, so if we have to buy them, they’re cheap. Cassava, bananas, sugarcane, corn bran, and rice bran are all readily available in rural areas… The process of caring for palm weevils isn’t too complicated; we just need to feed them in the early stages after the rhinoceros beetles have finished laying their eggs. After that, we just leave them alone, and the weevils will feed on the nutrients from the coconut shells, cassava, and palm kernels,” Ms. Luong shared.

Speaking about the palm weevil farming business, Ms. Lo Thi Luong confided: "One day in May, I happened to hear that someone in the commune had successfully raised palm weevils, and many people bought them to eat, so I went to see for myself."

Curious about how easy and inexpensive it was to raise palm weevils, and how people usually only kept a few in a few pots, resulting in insignificant numbers, she went home, researched further in the literature, and decided to invest her time in commercially raising palm weevils.

To obtain breeding stock, she initially went into the palm forest area in the village and caught 40 palm weevils, which she then raised to become king ants (breeding stock). She used all the king ants she obtained as breeding stock. From those 40 initial breeding stock, after one month she had multiplied them to hundreds of breeding pairs.

By the end of July, she started raising palm weevils commercially. From an initial 5 experimental breeding pots, she has now expanded to nearly 80 pots. By staggered stocking, she harvests 4-5 pots daily, yielding 2-3 kg of commercial weevils, which she sells for 200,000 VND/kg.

Ms. Luong said that most customers who buy palm weevils are locals who buy them as gifts or to prepare as food. They often prepare them by stir-frying them with sour bamboo shoots, or with lime leaves and chili peppers, which is very appealing. Palm weevils raised on clean feed are characterized by their fragrant and fatty texture, and high protein content, making them popular after preparation.

"After each batch of palm weevil larvae is raised, the food source in the container runs out of nutrients, becoming waste and no longer capable of feeding the weevils, so a new batch must be prepared. The waste is used as fertilizer for plants, especially for growing bananas and cassava, which is very good. Then, the bananas and cassava tubers are used as food, creating a cycle for raising palm weevils," Ms. Luong explained.

Mr. Mac Van Tuat, Chairman of the Que Phong District Farmers' Association, said that Ms. Lo Thi Cuong's successful experiment in raising palm weevils is a new model, the first of its kind in the district. Currently, several farmers in the area have come to buy them to breed and try raising them. Palm weevils are not a commonly sold food item, and even finding them is difficult. Therefore, the current high price of palm weevils is inevitable.