I read somewhere that worms are good eating. They digest organic matter out of dirt, so there is grit in their digestive system. If you put them in water for a few minutes, they will purge themselves of this dirt. I imagine they would go well in a stew.(I have not tried this.)
I also read that hard shelled insects can harbor parasites, specifically tapeworms, and so they should be cooked. Can anyone verify this? Are there any other possible dangers aside from natural poisons?
http://www.artrans.com/rmsg/_newsgroups/insecfo1.htm
An excerpt from the above site:
... Reminds me of something the Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen wrote about his stay with the Netsilik Inuit:
"Right alongside the spot where we pitched our camp we found an old cache of caribou meat -- two years old I was told. We cleared the stones away and fed the dogs, for it is law in this country that as soon as a cache is more than a winter and a summer old, it falls to the one who has use for it. The meat was green with age, and when we made a cut in it , it was like the bursting of a boil, so full of great white maggots was it. To my horror my companions scooped out handfuls of the crawling things and ate them with evident relish. I criticized their taste, but they laughed at me and said, not illogically:
"'You yourself like caribou meat, and what are these maggots but live caribou meat? They taste just the same as the meat and are refreshing to the mouth."
I guess if you think of it that way, then they are just processed meat. Sort of like tiny, wriggling hot dogs. Maybe thats what he means by eating them with 'relish'
