To Debbie Riccio, This is in response to your posting several days ago about the protein advantages of eating insects. I would tend to agree, but must also add a caveat from recent experience. While treating Rikki and Emma to a weekend at the sea, we were plagued by hundreds of huge beetles buzzing around like B52s. Imagine a 1.5-inch monster, twice the size of the normal"June bugs" we used to see every summer in Michigan. They did not have pincers big enough to bite, and so I thought I would take revenge on one that did a kamikaze dive into my hair by making it a toy & snack for our ferrets. Big mistake. They loved playing with it, of course. Real amusing--until Rikki started eating it. I removed the remains, but a few minutes later, Rikki started vomiting and retching. I was scared, but in 20 or so minutes he seemed back to normal, thank the gods. I think that ferrets have lost much of their instincts about what is palatable and what is not. Although we live in Turkey, I expect that toxic insect species could pose a problem anywhere. Butterflies like the Monarch can be dangerous, for example. Whether cockroaches carry more pathogens, by virtue of their eating habits, than ferrets might encounter in their wanderings I cannot guess--but I don't think I would encourage them as a protein supplement. (Or at least not uncooked?!) All the best from Istanbul... [Posted in FML issue 1273]