# Is it safe to eat a worm? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 12, 2013, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784 "2013-06-12T03:29:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/21 "2013-06-13T02:04:25Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > If your dieting, you should known that, on the average, a worm has 70 calories. > [http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/robin/WormCalories.html](http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/robin/WormCalories.html) Wrong kind of calories. In nutritional speak, a worm’s less than a single nutritional Calorie. 0.07, by those calculations. Diet food! 😃 (70 Calories is a small apple, or a couple of slices of American cheese.) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/22 "2013-06-13T03:43:42Z")
Is it safe to eat a worm? Not if you’re a fish! There’s a big tradition of insect-eating in northeastern Thailand. (A lot of people think it’s all Thais, but no, just the Northeast.) That’s traditionally the poorest region, and they’ve had to improvise. Doesn’t seem to have hurt them too much, but then there _are_ a lot of gastrointestinal disorders here. You’ll see lots of bug carts in Bangkok too, but they tend to congregate near areas where there are a lot of northeastern migrants such as red-light districts (most bargirls are from the Northeast) or construction sites (many if not most construction workers are again itinerant Northeasterners.) ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/23 "2013-06-13T04:37:19Z")
some day they will get to eat you. get them first. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/24 "2013-06-13T05:17:49Z")
But worms aren’t insects… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/25 "2013-06-13T10:12:44Z")
When people talk about cultures that eat insects, they quite often mean _land-based invertebrates in general_ - including spiders, woodlice, snails, etc - which are also not insects. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/26 "2013-06-13T15:09:10Z")
The silkworm is called an insect [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombyx_mori), and people eat those. I was served some in China. [Here is an FAO list](http://foris.fao.org/preview/28924-06a14a1e391fcfeb11ea387fbb084e53b.pdf) of edible insects in Thailand. (It’s a pdf file.) It does identify Northern Thais as insect eaters too, but believe me, no one can hold a candle to the Northeasterners. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/27 "2013-06-13T15:28:19Z")
The OP is talking about earthworms - a silkworm is in fact a caterpillar (or pupa, probably at the point of consumption) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/28 "2013-06-13T15:31:28Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The OP is talking about earthworms - a silkworm is in fact a caterpillar (or pupa, probably at the point of consumption) If we had earthworms here, I guarantee they’d eat them in the Northeast. ---
**Author:** ![AussieDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@AussieDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AussieDog)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/29 "2013-06-14T17:03:25Z")
When I was in grade school we had show and tell and a girl who’s folks ran a bait shop. She brought a bunch of deep fried earth worms and offered them to the class. She no takers, but she suffered a lot of ribbing for the rest of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Claire98909](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Claire98909](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire98909)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/30 "2013-06-14T18:12:42Z")
Okay, so it was pretty disgusting to say the least. I didn’t have time to “prep” the worm and feed it an all fruit diet to purge it of the dirt in it and I forgot to attempt to “push” all of the crap in it out of its anus prior to boiling it. Once boiled it got very hard and rubbery and everything inside sort of solidified. So I had no choice but to go ahead and fry it with the poop still inside. Then the poop got a bit burned because I overfried it a bit. When I broke the fried worm in half it smelled sort of like popcorn and sort of like shrimp. For those who are curious, I did it via the website Fiverr, where people pay you five dollars to do stuff (well, technically you get paid four dollars because the website gets one dollar out of the five). But I’m a poor college student so I was more than willing to eat a worm for four dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/31 "2013-06-14T18:14:31Z")
If this story is true, I’ll eat my worm. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/32 "2013-06-14T18:20:13Z")
In Soviet Union, worms eat you! ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/33 "2013-06-14T18:20:34Z")
Raw worms are tougher and more rubbery than I expected taste was kind of nuetral. Raw termites are actually delicious. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/34 "2013-06-14T23:28:34Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > Raw termites are actually delicious. Not sure about worms, but I recommend scorpions, the smaller variety. They’re kind of buttery. ---
**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/35 "2013-06-15T00:27:27Z")
in 1972 Ft. Benning Ga. as part of the NCOCC (more commonly called Shake-n-Bakes) i was in that was a training program for Squad Leaders to serve in Viet Nam part of out training was to spend a week with the Airborn Rangers. this was a intence survival training week. We all lined up and were each given a nice big fat earth worm and it is what we would call a night crawler here in Northern MN. another Ranger would follow and we would then have to eat and show that it was swallowed. the big difference between the weenies and the rest of us is we all were allowed to thumb the Shit out of the worm but it was frowned on and i didn’t do it. 😃 And that was that! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/36 "2013-06-15T13:44:26Z")
> [@Gbro](#): > > in 1972 Ft. Benning Ga. as part of the NCOCC (more commonly called Shake-n-Bakes) i was in that was a training program for Squad Leaders to serve in Viet Nam part of out training was to spend a week with the Airborn Rangers. this was a intence survival training week. > We all lined up and were each given a nice big fat earth worm and it is what we would call a night crawler here in Northern MN. > another Ranger would follow and we would then have to eat and show that it was swallowed. > the big difference between the weenies and the rest of us is we all were allowed to thumb the Shit out of the worm but it was frowned on and i didn’t do it. 😃 > And that was that! 😉 In the annual Cobra Gold exercise over here, jointly held between US and Thai troops, the American soldiers are taught to survive in the jungle drinking snake blood. The newspapers almost always run a photo of some American GI whose face is covered with snake blood. ---
**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/37 "2013-06-15T22:57:47Z")
Well one week with those Animals was enough for me! maybe they reserved the snake fluids for themselves, although i certainly would have partaken had we been invited:eek: I was blessed in that Nixon halted troop shipment to the war 30 day before we garaduated the last class of Shake-n-Bakes, although we felt we were Whip-n-Chills because our class was like Nov.- April 1972. There used to be an old joke about white sheep and black being mistaken for Airborn Rangers :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/38 "2013-06-25T17:25:49Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Not sure about worms, but I recommend scorpions, the smaller variety. They’re kind of buttery. If anyone has watched "The Survivor Man on TV he eats a lot of strange insects, scorpions etc. He cooks them over a fire! ---
**Author:** ![PatriotGrrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/39 "2013-06-25T23:02:56Z")
Here in NH, many convenience stores sell containers of worms. They’re usually kept in the beer cooler. Some have signs saying theirs are imported, though I don’t know what difference that makes. (They’re not meant for human consumption.) ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784/40 "2013-06-26T11:09:42Z")
There was [this children’s book published in 1973.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Eat_Fried_Worms) Although it’s more of a story than a cookbook I do remember being in grade school around that time, mid 70s, and making fried worms was briefly a ‘thing’, i.e. I saw a few bits about it on TV and even a couple of classes at my school tried it (not mine). Wasn’t a big deal, kind of a goofy fad (like so much of that decade…) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-safe-to-eat-a-worm/660784.md?page=3)