Pillbugs, or roly-polies, as some people call them, are small, 11-sectioned bugs that curl up into a ball for defense. They are arthropods and are more closely related to shrimp and crabs than insects and worms. But this is recent knowledge to me. For most of my life, I thought of them as bugs. And that's what I thought when Theo took a liking to them.
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| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillidium_vulgare |
When he was a toddler, Theo went through a phase where he was fascinated with pill bugs. We had an abundance of them around the edge of our patio and Theo would pick them up and promptly put them in his mouth. We did everything we could to discourage this, but he persisted. One day I saw that he had a dozen or so in his mouth, and I shouted to get them out of his mouth. And do you know what he did? He promptly swallowed them all. I guess I should have been more specific about what I wanted.
However, I've recently learned that they are edible and taste like shrimp. Maybe if I had known that then, I would have cleaned them up and let Theo eat all he wanted. But then again, maybe not. We don't eat manly insects in this country, and it just seems wrong.
Have you eaten any exotic insects?
