These caterpillars🐛 cost $50,000 per kilo

How much are you willing to pay to eat your favourite meal or delicacy ? GH￠50, GH￠750 or even GH￠1000?

Well, in some parts of Asia, people are paying GH￠289,896 (US $50,000) to eat a tasty fungus that grows out of a very dead caterpillar’s head.

In southern China, shoppers are met with heaps of delicate arrangements of the inch-long dead caterpillars with stalks growing out their heads.

The caterpillars and their stalk heads are apparently a nation-wide craze. They are gathered in Tibet and the Himalayas. The stalks growing out of their heads and fungi – Ophiocordyceps sinensis, to be exact.

The fungi takes over their caterpillar hosts, kills them (so rude), and then burst out of their heads.

Chinese traditional medicine claims these worms are perfect for those suffering from asthma and even cancer.

Source: Getty Images via BBC

(Credit: Getty Images)

These funky worms sell from the starting price of $50,000 per kilo (of high quality), which is much more expensive than the cost of another delicacy- black truffles.

To reap the benefits, you only need one or two worms in medicinal soups.

The dried caterpillars can sell for up to $50,000 a kilo (Credit: Getty Images)

The dried worms can sell for up to $50,000 a kilo (Credit: Getty Images)

DEATH OVER FUNGUS

The rush for the caterpillar fungus gold has resulted in the deaths of two men in Nepal who were involved in a caterpillar dispute in 2010.

The fungus is now listed as an endangered species in the country of China. Despite its classification as endangered, the demand for these worms keeps declining due to an anti-corruption campaign and its effects that make the product more of a liability than a pleasure to any official.