Kampala, Uganda (CNN) , in Uganda, where grasshoppers are considered to be a delicious seasonal snack, the appetite for the crispy creatures has created an explosion of informal trade that has transformed some trappers in wealthy men.
"They were just something you found in the grass during the rainy season," says Ugandan Lawrence Mawanda. "I didn't know they could be profitable."
But ten years ago on a trip through the area of Masaka, the 53-year old truck driver an overview of a row of drums of oil rusty bordering the road and equipped with sheets of corrugated aluminum long shimmering under fluorescent light bulbs powerful.
Swarms of insects danced around the light, and all the seconds one would smack against one of the sheets of metal and slides in a drum, hence they do not emerge.
They were just something you found in the grass during the rainy season. I did not know that they could be profitable.-Lawrence Mawanda, Trapper of the grasshopper
The next rainy season, he said, he introduced the trap of the capital, Kampala, at a cost of several hundreds of dollars starting - covering the lights, wiring, leaves and battery - becomes first Trapper of Grasshopper on a large scale of the city.
Now, during the rainy season, some parts of this town and areas that attract high concentrations of grasshoppers - known as the central belt - bask during the night in a stage-like shine, punctuated by the ping and scuffing of grasshoppers in their losing battle in advance with aluminum foil.
During the high season, the sidewalks of Natete Kampala district are lined with mainly the sellers of women selling whole grasshoppers plucked of their legs, the wings and antennae and the deep fried or sautéed with onion and Chile. They extract 1 000 Ugandan shillings (40 cents) for four teaspoons value.
Boys take buckets plastic of them wander the streets or derive in the bars where grasshoppers are spread on a banana leaf and book with cold beer.
Once a delicacy still stuck in bags of polyethylene, or between the folds of blankets, mainly by women and children beating grasshoppers, known locally as "nsenene," have evolved into a thriving informal sector.
Mawanda, said he earns about two million Ugandan shillings (about $780) by season of grasshoppers - Uganda more than double the GDP per capita - and although he still lives in a jumble of houses along a trash-clogged canal in Natete, he built a row of booths now leased as a salon, pharmacy and drug store.
It is ventured in poultry and put five children through school. Grasshoppers have him relieved of the conduct of his truck, he said.
But trade is also devastated the electric network of the capital and hindering economic development in a country where electricity is about 8% - among the lowest rates in Africa.
Many, if not most, trappers illegally access the country's main private electricity distributor grid overloaded transformers cooking (and sometimes themselves) and the city of $500,000 per month in revenue, according to officials with Umeme, of.
Last year Umeme began engaging residents in the neighbourhood of Kamwokya in Kampala, where abundant trapping large scale, to raise awareness of how trade affects the quality of life y
Some residents, they found, were aware of the connection between the trapping of grasshoppers and the delivery of decreased power season grasshopper, November-December and May-June, when the lights dim or cut up to 10 times in a week.
We want customers to know it is affecting their quality of life.-Florence Nsubuga, Umeme
"We want to know is having an impact on their quality of life, the customers", explains Florence Nsubuga, Manager of sector of Kampala Umeme is.
UMEME said that he has registered some successes, the area Mulimira of Kamwokya, where power infrastructure is designed to accommodate 1,000 households, but is severely overwhelmed only 450 users legally registered last December.
UMEME staff has made energy illegal House to House, disconnection, including Grasshopper trappers. Hussein Mubiru UMEME Manager called a wake-up call to the community that Umeme wishes to support through follow-up visits.
But, Francis Mutubazi, a resident of the area of Mulimira, which has been urging Umeme of illegal use of address with the letters and telephone calls since 2005, the Umeme of successful claims disputes.
"Two days after the arrival of Umeme through illegal users had reconnected", said Mutubazi, adding Umeme took no action warned of recurrence.
UMEME officials say that a large part of the problem boils down to a lack of policy is among the agencies such as the police, as well as strike a balance between the regulation and the promotion of entrepreneurship in a country of mass unemployment.
"We must balance between encouraging informal sector for the supply of electricity to these groups in the informal sector in a legal manner,", said the General Director of regulatory affairs with Umeme, Sam Zimbe.
Repression aggressive on the trade of the grasshopper, he said, would be disruptive to a supply chain that includes the trappers, wholesalers, lorry drivers and retailers in a country whose appetite for insect-rich proteins, which taste like a cross between French fries and aubergines, is probably plu across the continent.
And yet fresh Umeme traders Grasshopper a deposit of 900 000 shillings ($355) per season to access the grid, which could inadvertently be encouraging to operate the line illegally.
Trucks deliver in 50 kg bags selling for up to 100 000 shillings, which are exported throughout the country - which is how Mawanda made much of his annual income.
Requested A what he does with power disruptions caused by the explosion of commerce in Natete, he said, through its line of stalls rented next to putrid channel, "I am not worried about it."