Florida Man Dies After Bug-Eating Competition

Can eating bugs really kill a person?

A Florida man was pronounced dead shortly after participating and winning a bug-eating contest. Ben Siegel Reptile Store in Deerfield Beach held a bug-eating competition in which the winner would take home the grand prize of a python.

Edward Archbold, a 32-year-old man from West Palm Beach, collapsed outside the store after winning the contest according to a statement released on Monday by the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Of the 30 contestants competing for the python, Archbold was declared the winner. However, upon reaching the hospital, Archbold was pronounced dead. Michael Adams, a professor of entomology at the University of California at Riverside, explained that “unless the roaches were contaminated with some bacteria or other pathogens, I don’t think that cockroaches would be unsafe to eat.”

The bugs that were consumed were raised in a controlled environment as food for reptiles.

via: AP Photo: Death and Taxes