SILVEIRAS, Brazil - Jorge da Silva plucked a giant ant from the ground, pulled off its wings, legs and mandible, and tossed it into his mouth.

“Tastes like mint,” said Mr. da Silva, 58, with an audible crunch .

Mr. da Silva roamed the hills above this town of 6,000, on the hunt for a rare gastronomic delicacy : icas, or queen ants.

The thunderous spring rains drive the ants out of the ground, and for a few weeks Silveiras becomes a frenzy of ant hunting.

But their numbers are dwindling. The principal culprits are pesticides used on eucalyptus trees that are planted to produce cellulose for paper and other products, local officials said.

So unlike northern Colombians who are exporting their “hormigas culonas,” or big-rear queen ants, to France, Britain and other countries, locals here are keeping their ants to themselves.

Silveiras residents - and the people who drive hundreds of kilometers every year to buy the ants - value the insects not only for their protein, but also as an aphrodisiac and source of natural antibiotics.

These are no ordinary ants. Icas are big - up to 2.5 centimeters in length - and fat, and they can bite viciously.

But the ants are under threat, residents contend. Driven by Brazil’s growing economy, the eucalyptus trees have proved to be a big boon for some landowners in Silveiras, which is no longer a major coffee and cattle producer.

“With urbanization and the poison that they are putting into the soil, we do not have much time left,” said Vera Toledo, 67, a writer and anthropologist.

Residents have not tried to make the ants into a commercial enterprise. While they say they could use the extra money, many seem more concerned with preserving the tradition - and the ant population - for themselves.

Ocilio Ferraz, Silveiras’s resident icas guru, has dedicated himself to keeping the ant feast alive. He has resisted efforts to export them, preferring to receive visitors at his restaurant, where he has a special kitchen devoted to frying the icas.

Mr. Ferraz, 72, said he grew up eating icas at home and taught the tradition to his children. Then, 20 years ago, he held an ica festival that drew more than 400 people. The festival’s success inspired him to create an arts and crafts center dedicated to the tradition.

Slowly, Mr. Ferraz helped break the stigma that used to surround eating icas, which had been seen as a tradition reserved for poorer families. “Many people would say they were embarrassed about eating icas,” he said. And yet, he said, every autumn “the entire town would smell like frying ants.”

Today the residents are more open about their appreciation for the crunchy queen ants.

“I am an ica fanatic,” said Maria Jose Camargo, 29. “I love it so much. It’s worth saving money all year to spend on icas.”

Mr. da Silva, the ant hunter, captured the ants with his bare hands. They frequently bit him; his hands are typically bloodied after a day of catching them. At one point, a girl watching him cried out as an ant bit her foot.

The ant catchers sell their haul to Mr. Ferraz for about $15 per liter. He charges about $12 for a large plate of icas with wheat fried in pig fat meant for two.

Edson Mendes Mota, the former mayor of Silveiras and now its development director, said he does not care for the icas, even though his wife has 8 kilograms of icas in their freezer. Mr. Mota supports the town’s growing eucalyptus industry. Landowners have a right to plant the highly profitable trees, though the plantings need to be regulated, he said.

“We need to unite and sit down and discuss the fact that the new generation here will no longer know the traditions of our town,” Mr. Mota said.

Alair Duarte, the president of the town council, has proposed limiting eucalyptus plantings so the ants can reproduce. “If we don’t do it soon, we won’t have any icas left,” he said.

“People say there are a lot of icas in the cemeteries because they eat people’s brains,” said Osmar da Silva, 43, an ica salesman. But he admitted: “I have never had the courage to go into a cemetery and actually look there.”


By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO and MYRNA DOMIT