Bugs You Can Swallow, Bugs You Can’t

Swallowed a bug? No worries. Probably. Unless it’s a bee, wasp, or fire ant, in which case you could be in for some mild pain and swelling. The Wall Street Journal gives us the lowdown on bugs that we may want to keep outside our bodies. Those include fleas, which can transmit double-pored dog tapeworm, and beetles, which can transmit dwarf  tapeworm. The Journal points out that yes, many people around the world eat all kinds of bugs, and they can be a major source of protein, but no, most people don’t eat them raw, and in any case there is “negligible nutritional benefit” to be gained. The good news? In the vast majority of cases, your body will digest arthropods, which include arachnids like spiders, mites and ticks, and insects such as gnats, flies, mosquitoes, fleas and bedbugs, “just like any other food,” says Bobbi Pritt, a microbiologist, pathologist and director of the Clinical Parasitology Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “Eating a bug now and then probably won’t be a problem for most.”