Moth-flavoured pancake, anyone?

After years of being encouraged to "throw another shrimp on the barbie", Australians are now being urged instead to tuck into the bogong moths that are plaguing many parts of the country.

The "munch a moth" campaign is being led by Jean-Paul Bruneteau, 51, a French-born chef who is regarded as a worldwide pioneer of such delights as smoked emu, lemon myrtle and bunya nuts.



"They are lovely," he said. "They have a nutty, crisp, popcorn flavour, like buttered hazelnut."

But don't pig out on too many, warned Martyn Robinson, the naturalist at the Australian Museum, who said studies had found the moths were high in arsenic from farm pesticides.

"I was eating them right up until I heard that," Mr Robinson said. "I'd catch them off the windowsill, hold them by the wings, and pop them straight into my mouth. It's like eating a prawn cocktail."



According to one study, 100 grams of bogong moth abdomen has three times the fat, and almost twice the kilojoules, of a similar portion of a Big Mac.

Mr Bruneteau recommends pulling off the "furry" wings, then roasting the bodies for three minutes in a dash of canola oil. Or, he said, collect a handful, put three-quarters of them through a coffee blender, then sprinkle them into "an omelette, pancakes or a crepe". Toss the remaining bodies in whole. "It looks like plums in an almond cake."