I am pretty careful about washing my veggies and I don't think I have eaten any insects. ( I am a strict vegetarian - LOL!) But you never know... Accidents can happen. Are there any bigs you might eat that could harm you?

I imagine a bee or wasp might sting you on the way down lol.

I have always wondered about poisonous spiders, but then I guess they don't do much harm, I have heard on average a person swallows seven spiders a year(in their sleep), nice thought...

What's worse than finding a worm in your apple?.....

finding half of a worm in your apple ;)

I don't know about you, but if I accidentally eat a bug I'm liable to accidentally throw up!

And speaking of bugs, today I watched an assassin bug attack an armyworm that was on a tomato leaf. Man, that was brutal! Assassin bugs are not cute, and this one was pretty big. I'm glad they don't come in the size of Sigourney Weaver's aliens.

If you saw my story about the wasp on another thread, please disregard this.

While reading the morning paper, sipping coffee and absent mindedly nibbling on a donut at a campground picnic table, I bit a yellow jacket which had landed on the donut. He stung me on the tip of my tongue, which was a sudden wake-up call.

Fortunately, it was not so painful as you might imagine and there were no serious aftereffects.

What I really dread is breathing in an insect or getting a bug in my ear.

Jim

It's true, everyone's eaten bugs without knowing it..Even in some
foods, like cereals for example , may have a little bit of bugs in it.
A certain small amount is allowed, since it is unavoidable. You would
nerver actually see it.. I always check my vegetables very carefully for
bugs, but I bet I've eaten more than one.

As Roper said - everyone's eaten bugs without knowing it. You don't want to know what all you've eaten in cereal!

Sorry, but if you eat a bug its DNA will rapidly overwrite your DNA and transform you into a mutant.

But, luckily your family will be well provided after the Sci-Fi Channel makes a movie of the week about your misfortune.

:-)

My son had a bug go up his nose. It didn't come out and went down the back of his throat and he swallowed it. He was only about 8 at the time.
He screamed bloody murder. But it had no lasting effects. He's a fine young, healthy strapping man now.
Maybe it was a healthy bug :-)
Dave

One of the stories I love to start out with my students is called "Eat Your Bugs." The story is more of a magazine article. It says humans are out numbered by bugs about a hundred million to one or something like that. Furthermore, as Westerners (many European countries included), we are very strange for NOT eating bugs. Most of the world eats bugs as part of their staple diet. The article goes on to say that we could potentially solve many of our global warming problems by switching to more of bug diet rather than a large animal (especially cows) diet.

At the end of reading the story, I make chocolate covered crickets for my students to eat. All the times I served the chocolate covered crickets, only two students refused to eat the crickets. Believe it or not, chocolate covered crickets are not so bad. I would like to add that all crickets were purchased from the pet store because it is dangerous to eat bugs from outside. They could have pesticides or herbicides on them or be carrying some kind of disease.

speak for yourself. I eat bugs. All I need to do is, say, eat a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast every morning. According to the USDA, I will then have eaten about two ounces bugs in a year. Just google it and find out for yourself.

Then there are the fresher, fully organic, local things that hide in my lettuce. Although they are not hyped and whitewashed by commercials and neat packaging, I consider them better eating than the industrial ones. They come packaged with prime vegetables after all. Either way you will eat your bugs, fresh or ground and dried.

Just get all of those cabbage worms out of the broccoli before you chomp down on them. Flies, spiders, grubs are one thing. Cabbage worms taste like tushy (substitute 'tushy' with your word of choice).

Seriously. I'm just sayin'

Its just Protein!!! LOL!!!!!!

There are only two significant sources of chitin (recent research suggests it to be a possibly important nutrient) in the human diet: certain mushrooms and bugs. Guess which one is least dangerous to eat.

I have noticed that sometimes aphids like to hang out on my broccoli raab. I usually check for them before eating any, but one time I for some reason forgot to check, and ate half of the broccoli. I then remembered about the aphids and looked at what I hadn't eaten. Sure enough it had a bunch of aphids on it. So I can tell you from experience aphids will not kill you or make you sick.

I usually munch on veggies when I am picking and I am sure I have eaten plenty more bugs also, sometimes dirt too. If you ask me I would rather eat bugs than dirt. Bugs you do not normally notice but dirt isn't very pleasant tasting.

Sorry I should probably stop before I make everyone sick.

Like Jimster, I'm less concerned about the bug that I eat (it's dead) than the one that eats me. My mother had a tick crawl into her ear while she was sleeping several years ago, and after days of pain, it required surgical removal.

I think everyone eats a large bug at one time or another... especially if you drink cans of soft drinks outdoors. Last summer, I took a drink of soda, and spit it out by reflex when I felt something solid. It was a wasp, and I spit it out before it could sting me. I think I've swallowed a couple of flies that way, though... and something that hung on, and wouldn't let me spit it out. That was creepy.

Everyone who grows vegetables - or buys them - will eat a few bugs. No big deal... as long as you don't know you did it. I was almost ready to munch on a head of broccoli once, when I spied a hair protruding from it. The "hair" turned out to be the tail of an adult earwig, nestled between the florets. Needless to say, I have inspected my broccoli carefully ever since.

If you eat a "bad bug", then you have just become a beneficial predator. If you eat a "good bug"... well, most of them bite or sting, so you'll be punished for your crime. In either case, chew vigorously. ;-)

lolear,
Ever start to think ignorance is bliss?? :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

The only cautionary note I have heard about eating "common" insects is that if it is something large like a cricket or grasshopper you should remove the legs and wings because there is a chance they could lodge in your gut.

Or, another lovely thought - they may be infested with hairworm.
Nope, not posting a link as I'd like everyone to keep their latest meal right where it belongs.
Just....ewwww.

When I first started gardening about 2 years ago, I had no experience. The yard and garden were overgrown with weeds, so my first task was pulling all that out. I probably pulled out some nice ornamentals, too, but didn't know enough to know what I was looking at. I remember the digust I felt at what I unearthed (creepy-crawlies). I friend liked to call me Zsa-Zsa. Generally, I'd say that description is unfair, but right there at the beginning, I did have my moments. I still don't like handling bugs without gloves on, though. Either I never noticed how many bugs were out there, or there are a lot more this year because of the wet spring. In either case, I would like to think that I do not eat bugs (so, thanks everybody, for that!). I do look things over VERY carefully before I eat anything, though. (individually washing each leaf of lettuce, then rinsing again, then again before spinning! Compulsive?) But I do wonder if there are any insects that could survive a trip through one's digestive system and become parasitic? Best not to think of things like this... ;)

individually washing each leaf of lettuce, then rinsing again, then again before spinning!

Compulsive? A little.

But I do wonder if there are any insects that could survive a trip through one's digestive system and become parasitic?

Paranoid? Definitely.

When I go pick grapes at a U-pick farm, I do what other fellow homebrewers do: I don't care about the grape variety (well, I care if it is red or white), I just go to the row with the most flies and wasps. Those are the grapes that will make the best wine. Surely I increase the wine bug content by a factor of ten that way.

But I do wonder if there are any insects that could survive a trip through one's digestive system and become parasitic?

I saw that on an episode of House.

Then there's the Bot Fly...

In India many "vegetarians" would get enough protein in their diet because the grain was not at the same standards of purity as in say Britain. They would get enough from bugs and termite eggs. When they moved to Britain they suffered nutritional deficiencies especially in B12 I believe. If I see a worm in say a fruit I will just cut out that piece.

Well, working pediatrics for 10 years you learn abotu a WHOLE slew of parasites kids can pick up from soil. Hookworms, Tapeworms, pinworms. At least once a year id have a panicked mother come into my office with a tupperware or jar of some bug that crawled out of a oriface of a child. This is in the USA, in massachusetts, in a suburb of Boston. Its VERY common. Its all treatable.... -cassie

My father farmed in Idaho for many years. He would sell truckloads of grain to the General Mills plant in the nearby city.

When he first started selling to GM, they would immediately test the truckload of grain as it entered the mill grounds, if it had too high a percentage of "bugs" it would be sent to the side of the plant that produced animal feed, if it was "clean" it went to the human consumption side.

So, as the years progressed one day my father was not stopped at the gate as usual. My father questioned, and was told they no longer separated the grain, they just added
insecticide to each truck load. And sure enough, as the grain went up the auger to be stored, a little tube would intermittently shoot a pellet of insecticide right in with the grain-yummmmy!!!!

g

When I was in Korea, we would go to the small towns and the markets. There you would see big cauldrons of spiced beetles (3 inch long ones) and centipedes in what ever kind of broth. These were considered a snack and would be served in little cups w/ spoons. Some of the bigger markets sold things you don't even want to know about. A few bug wings in my ceral no big deal.

Ladybugs are very bitter......one flew in my mouth when playing sports in high school and it was so nasty tasting.

As people have said before, westerners are actually strange for not including some kinds of insects in their normal diet.

Though, oddly, we think eating crustaceans is fine. Is there really THAT big a difference between a grasshopper and a shrimp?

That said, insect larvae gross me out, so I probably would not eat any kind of grub or caterpillar, unless maybe it was prepared by someone who knew what they were doing (like some non-western cook that makes them all the time). The thought of accidentally eating, say, a cabbage worm, totally grosses me out.

I've heard crickets and grasshoppers aren't too bad, again, properly prepared. And locusts are specifically mentioned as kosher in the scriptures! Hey, kosher restaurants could be totally missing out on a great alternative to shrimp.

Parasites are a different matter, but don't you mainly get those from fecal contamination? An aphid or cabbage worm is not going to survive your digestive tract and become parasitic. Being a parasite is not that easy; they have to have a lot of adaptations to survive that environment and hide from your immune system.

We grow raspberries, and sometimes I will eat a few of these right out of the patch, and now & then an ant will go down with the raspberry. I have never gotten sick from this, but I can tell you that fresh ants taste terrible. Maybe if they were roasted and coated with chocolate...

If my cats are any indication, certain bugs just don't taste very good. I've seen them try to eat an ant, only to spit it back out seconds later. Apparently, ants secrete fomic acid, so I suppose they do not taste very good, and/or sting. Not sure why lady bugs are not palatable, but according to the cats, they are not (too crunchy?).
Personally, I try not to eat anything that had a mother :) so I guess I'm stuck triple washing....

And what happen if you eat bug's egg ?? lol Are they going to hatch in your stomach ? Because today, when I washed my lemon bassil for my salad, I saw 1 leaf had bug's egg ( that's the same bug that laid their egg on my squash leaves, too ) and I just felt YUCK!! because lately, I ate lemon bassil without cooking it first since that is for my salad. I just hoped there's no bug's egg I have eaten from it before :D

Where do you think fruit flies come from, the ones that fly around the fruit sitting on your counter?

so you are eating bug larvae too.

You eat bugs all the time. Pieces of dead bugs (and bug poop) on veggies, as well as ground up as dust in the air. So if it bothers you, don't breathe. Think protein.

What happens if you accidentally drink bacteria in strong hydrochloric acid? Oh, yeah, it just goes in your stomach where there is already a lot of bacteria in strong hydrochloric acid.

As the stomach turns. This is better than a soap opera! Now I 'm wondering how many bugs, eggs and bug poop I have eaten over the many years I have been on earth. I might skip breakfast tomorrow. Alot of dyes are made from bug parts. Scared me away from Greek yogurt for a few weeks. Not thrilled about General Mills spraying pesticides on grains to kill the bugs. So glad I don't eat cereal. Even more reasons to pursue homesteading and growing my own organic foods. I would much rather eat bugs than chemicals any day.

"Then there's the BOT fly!" MMQ ewww eww eww! My SIL got the BOT! In Belize!
She kept going to the Dr who thought she was crazy! Worms coming in and out of her scalp!Tried all sorts of self methods! There's a blog about it.....yuk yuk yuk!
When the aspy Dr finally saw the worm coming in and out of her scalp, he got all excited! LOL Finally got rid of it! YUK! Nancy

I have gotten less squeamish about bugs over the years. They are pretty interesting creatures really. I am vegetarian and if I were starving would probably rather eat bugs than mammals. They are supposedly quite rich in protein.

I didn't bother washing the mesclun mix from the garden (organic of course) this year. Just picked some leaves and threw them in the bowl. Figure if there is a little dirt or a bug in there, they are extra minerals and protein. :)