Testimonials

The Australian Aborigines still eat witchetty grubs (big fat larvae found in the bark of trees) live, the only part not eaten is the head. I have tried witchetty grubs cooked in the coals and they are delicious, so are snakes (though somewhat tough and chewy). As we are going to have to put aside our aversions to many things after the pole shift just to survive, it would be a good idea to start conditioning our minds with regard to these issues now.

Offered by Jan.

I've eaten bugs. In fact, every time I'm in the woods; or the back yard, for that matter, I try to find at least one bug and try it out. My purpose is to adapt my psyche to eating them. These days my only thought before popping something new into my mouth is to look for signs that it may be poisonous or taste very bad. Nature usually indicates this by making the creature very flashy - lots of color, contrasting markings, etc. After over two years of this practice I have never felt any ill effects, even after crunching a couple of roaches I came across in the house!

Not the tastiest of treats, in general; and sometimes having to spit out the exoskeleton on things such as roaches and beetles; but not that horrible either. For me, it's mostly the texture that I have to get used to. For instance, a moth tastes mildly like a blade of grass. Just ignore the fuzzy texture. Just chew it up and swallow. That's about it.

Offered by Ron.

But hey! Roaches are not only gross because of our loathing to see them in our houses, they are also epidemiogically dangerous, as their scavenging brings them in direct contact with feces and rotting things. Flies are also disease spreaders, as they also prefer to land and dine on feces and rotting things. They are on an entomologists list of disease spreaders! (I have a minor in entomology) So, I hope you washed that roach before you crunched it up.

Offered by Leila.

Yup, I washed them with dishwashing liquid and very hot water. No ill effects. Besides, household roaches found in the US currently don't have access to feces or even rotting things; although this is not the case in most third world countries. In the Aftertime, at least for quite a while, I wouldn't touch a roach and certainly not a fly; as there will probably be plenty of rotting corpses, both animal and human. However, not all rotting things are bad. A couple of years after the pole shift I expect that most former vegetation will be rotting, especially trees. It is within these trees that some of the most nutritious insects are to be found. If possible I would thoroughly wash, if for no other reason than that the grubs, etc. are dirty.

The insects do, however, have various bacteria in their digestive systems that could make humans sick because our bodies aren't used to them and haven't produced natural defenses against them. That's another reason that I make a point of eating various insects whenever I run across the opportunity. To start building up natural defenses against these organisms. If one waits until there is no other food, they well could get sick from eating the only thing that's available.

Offered by Ron.