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Never eat a lightning bug/firefly! They produce a highly toxic steroid that works much the same way as digitalis (foxglove). It affects the heart. Most North American animals avoid them, but some exotic lizards imported from other places have DIED horribly from eating just one!
I have learned all this from my latest reading (see For the Love of Insects). Make sure your kids don't eat lightning bugs! That white fluid they exude when caught contains the steroid. Catching fireflies won't hurt you, but you don't want to lick your hands afterward.
Most people wouldn't even think of eating fireflies, because they stink when you catch them. Remember, any insect/arthropod that stinks is producing toxic chemicals!
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Does the glowy stuff inside 'em hurt you any? (curious) Because a story my family likes to tell is one about a relative squooshing them and smearing the glowy stuff all over her face... Could that have hurt her?
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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The steroid is in the bug's blood, so it's all through the insect. It doesn't appear to be absorbed through the skin, though. It does make birds who eat the fireflies violently sick.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Not that I just came in from my nightly firefly-eating ritual *innocent look*, but, theoretically, how many would an average-sized human male have to ingest for noticable damage to occur?
Okay, now I have to go do something totally unrelated to inducing vomit.
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
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I can't go get the book now (it's in the bedroom with my sleeping hubby), but when I do, I'll look up the concentration of the chemicals.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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We used to kill them and put their glowing parts on our hands for glow in the dark jewelry (poor bugs) when we were kids, apparently with no ill-effects. %P I'm glad I never tried eating one, though. I love lightning bugs! They are so beautiful!
Posts: 5509 | Registered: May 1999
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