He eats them alive, yeah. Most ants in Norway are not able to do you much damage. You notice a little pinch but the actual pain is usually pretty trivial. Here's a pic of me getting bitten by a worker "forest ant".

http://i.imgur.com/p42qQ.jpg

Way too small to hurt me as you can see. I don't believe these ants have a stinger, but are instead able to spray acid from their abdomen .. I'm not sure if that also goes for the sugar ants, but I can't remember them doing anything but nibbling.

We do have a few species of small, reddish ants which, despite being tiny, do seem to have a bit of a stinger .. If they sting you, it's a bit like getting stung by the bumble bees we have here. It'll hurt (you'll definetly feel it when it gets you) and may be irritated for a few hours after, but they're otherwise harmless. I guess they're a bit like your fire ants, but are fortunately quite rare. I can only remember getting stung once.

ant bites here are very mild

there are bigger red ants but when they bite you, you feel a prick which only lasts a few seconds of itchiness

you have to go really deep into the forest for malicious giant ants

When I was really really little I dug out my back garden with a spoon and ate worms, that counts right :laughing:? I've never eaten any bugs since then but I've eaten some strange foods in Mexico and China, I'm not even sure what was in this 'taco' but it was dry white meat and it wasn't chicken, our friend Alberto said it was Iguana but I don't know if he was winding me up or not.

I've now ordered some cricket and scorpion lollies from a store on the net :p: Not my preferred way of trying bugs/arachnids, but at least it's something. Perhaps I can do a little review. I feel most brave about the crickets, but most curious about the scorpion.

My guess is they won't taste like much due to the sugar though, but hey. Maybe it'll break down some mental barriers if I have them :D

http://www.boozyfruitychocolatyaffai...mages/19_2.png

I wonder if it'll be hard.

Ah, let us know how those taste. You're right though, it'll probably taste like sugar.

Oh, I forgot. I actually did try deep-fried crickets once. They were okay. Tasted kind of grainy.

Grainy sounds more like a texture? Or do you mean that they had a sort of .. bread-y flavour?

I was unclear. I meant that they tasted kind of like corn, or cornbread I guess. May have been due to the way they were prepared as well.

I know you are pretty enthused about eating bugs but maybe those barriers are there for a reason, don't you think? Why do most people have those barriers? Are people afraid to eat things like that because 1.) they are ugly and their innards are slimy & disgusting or 2.) they're not accustom to eating bugs or 3.) is it because like being a picky eat a survival trait? Ticks, Fleas and Mosquitoes (among other things) are known to carry pathogens which can be transferred to humans and animals when are bitten by one - is there any danger of getting sick from eating bugs or insects?

When I was in high school, I had a science teacher who would get bug of the month club edible bugs, and allow whoever had the gonads to try. I consistently had said amount of gonads.

I got to try fried grasshopper (fantastic, but you could clearly see it was a grasshopper and the legs felt weird to chew), chocolate covered crickets (actually very good), cicada (pretty good), and scorpion (wasn't a fan; it felt REALLY weird in my mouth).

I probably wouldn't now...because I'm not sure if vegetarian diet extends to bugs...but it's really not as bad as it sounds. Once it's in your mouth, you're a'ight. My only complaints were textural.