Issue date: 4/3/08 Section: Aggielife

Media Credit: Stephen Fogg [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Stephen Fogg [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Stephen Fogg [Click to enlarge]

There are 56 insect parts in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For every 10 grams of Lonestar beer, there is an average of more than 2,500 soft-bodied insects floating in the bottle. Roger Gold, the professor of Entomology: Insects in Human Society, said it is almost impossible to have insect-free food.

For the past 10 years Gold has been teaching, he has set aside a day for insect tasting in which he cooked up a nice meal for his students full of insects. The insects were bought from an insectary, where they are raised properly and used to feed other animals, for research and for Gold's meals for his students.

After receiving the insects, Gold washed them in hot water, fried them in butter, spiced and boiled them. The menu consisted of mealworm pizza, chocolate chirp brownies, fire ant con queso and milk-chocolate bars with termites. As the students lined up, the plates were hardly filled. Those that dared to eat the pizza, which had mealworms hanging off every bite, said it tasted like pepperoni.

Chris Debayln, a junior in the class, agreed with the brave students.

"You don't really taste it," he said. Debayln said if there was a restaurant that served insect pizza, he would definitely go there.

The less adventurous students stuck to eating raisins, hard-shelled nuts and broccoli. However, the tables were turned when Gold announced that even those items contained a percentage of insects as well. Stephen Murray, a freshman general studies major, described the insects as "tangy and chewy" and encouraged those around him.

"When you look at it, it's deceiving, but it really doesn't taste that bad," Murray said.

The purpose of the class is to show students how insects are important to the world socially and economically.

Gold, who received his Ph.D. from Berkeley University, is different from other entomologists. He likes bugs, but mostly for scientific research and their role in urban life.

He said he enjoys teaching the students who may not be aware of how big a role bugs play in their everyday lives. Eating bugs was not on everyone's agenda that morning, but many students were willing to take the chance.

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