Man dies after eating roaches and worms

Edward Archbold, 32 had just competed in a roach and worm-eating contest at a south Florida reptile store when he keeled over and died. (The video above shows the contest in progress.) Archbold was hoping to win a python. Not surprisingly, Ben Siegel Reptiles has retained lawyers who are waving waivers. From CNN:

Archbold swallowed roach after roach, worm after worm. While the store didn't say exactly how many Archbold consumed, the owner told CNN affiliate WPLG that he was "the life of the party."
"He really made our night more fun," (store owner) Ben Siegel told the station…
Luke Lirot, who says he is legally representing the store, said in a post on the store's Facebook page that all participants "signed thorough waivers accepting responsibility for their participation in this unique and unorthodox contest."
"The consumption of insects is widely accepted throughout the world, and the insects presented as part of the contest were taken from an inventory of insects that are safely and domestically raised in a controlled environment as food for reptiles," Lirot said.

"Florida man dies after winning roach-eating contest"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

MORE: bugs • Food

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

http://twitter.com/fractos Adam Christie

Grim.
i3c

maybe eating/drinking contests are a bad idea, in general.
Trefunk

What a way to go.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001056071247 Paula Sandusky

Curious to hear the actual COD.
- OldBrownSquirrel
  
  The medical examiner is going to have fun with this one. I’m reminded of “Silence of the Lambs” with the moth pupa found during autopsy.
- C W
  
  Allergic reaction, most likely.
- Paul Renault
  
  Came here to say/ask the same thing. Yeah, what if he died of an aneurysm?
Culturedropout

The way he was packing them into his mouth, he probably suffocated. Wow – I’m not sure which is more disgusting – the contest itself or the way he was eating… :-p
The Oven Eye

It seems the food fought back and won.
- EH
  
  Reminds me of…
  
  http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CspQZv4QpnI/SinRW7q9fNI/AAAAAAAAANI/PtULZY1KNsU/s1600/carradine.jpg
nettdata

If you’re allergic to shellfish, you’re more than likely allergic to roaches as well.
- Adrienne Evans Fernandez
  
  This. Arthropods ane arthropods. Although, strangely enough, a lot of people with shrimp allergies can have crawfish? The offending protein must be missing there…
  
  I DO know that when the giant cicada broods emerge, there’s always a handful of yahoos who post sauteed cicada nymph recipes. And there’s always a couple of people who go into anaphylaxis .
- uuyeee
  
  Yeah probably this or just run of the mill sudden cardiac arrest. Something like 400,000 people died from SCA each year in the US with little to no warning.
- http://codeflow.org/ Florian Bösch
  
  Anaphylaxis symptoms appear about 2 hours after ingestion of material. Although I can attest that I had allergic symptoms quicker than that (red head, trouble breathing, raspy voice, swollen gum and lips) after ingestion of fermented soy powder produce quicker than 2 hours. On the other hand, it’ll probably take some time to kill you, so 2 hours is probably a pretty good measure.
  - nettdata
    
    I would tend to qualify that as “usually appear” within the 2 hours. In the case where you’re stuffing yourself with the material in a contest/race like this, I’d think it would present much more quickly and severely. Never mind that the actual contact can also cause the reaction much quicker than normally found via ingestion.
    - http://codeflow.org/ Florian Bösch
      
      There’s that. As a rule of thumb, don’t stuff yourself with stuff you’ve never eaten all at once. At least if you’ve taken some nibbles and then took a bit of time, there’s some time to back out before going on a hardcore anaphylaptic trip.
      
      I announce a new candidate for a darwin award 2012. Discipline posthumous. Category food and drink.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000816092324 Paul Cooke

waivers aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on…
- http://profiles.google.com/joshuabardwell Joshua Bardwell
  
  IANAL, but I don’t believe it. One thing that waivers are good for is convincing people not to bother to file a suit, because they think the waiver is legally binding. The other thing they are good for is establishing assumption of risk.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assumption_of_risk
  - EH
    
    Sure, but you also can’t sign your rights away.
    
    on the spot reference: http://treygivens.com/?p=1689
schadenfreudisch

but let’s speculate anyway. (this is the internet after all). no way it was an infection from “dirty” cockroaches as the article implied. that kills you a week or two later, not outside the store. not suffocation, that would have happened during the contest. i’m going for… he didn’t chew properly, worm burrows through his esophogus into his heart. maybe a preexisting heart condition, for good measure. or maybe 15 pound of worms and roaches had nothing to do with it, and it was just his time to go.
- ThunderHammer
  
  I like the last one, the store’s lawyers should jump on that – the timing of his death was pure coincidence.
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Reynolds/100000718665078 James Reynolds

Zero. Surprise.
Mister44

So what killed him? Roaches and worms shouldn’t kill someone – did he choke to death?
Nylund

I haven’t read anything that provides any real insight into the cause of death. For all we know, the bug-eating might just be a big coincidence. Or, maybe not. But right now, it’s all speculative.
Michael Lathrop

Thus sprach Internet: there is a corollary to Nietzsche’s rule: That which does not make you stronger kills you.
timquinn

Come on, after that experience he just ascended.
http://giannii.com/ Michael Giannii Calvert

Did they know exactly what he died of?
- Boundegar
  
  No. See above.
http://twitter.com/MrAaronSwainEsq Aaron Swain

The owner of the reptile shop actually called Archbold the “life of the party”.
CLamb

Did the cockroaches and worms survive?
Mr. Son

Let me throw my guess in the ring. Ate enough to rupture his stomach?
Lodewijk Gonggrijp

This man is now my hero. I will be able to point at this story whenever the switch from meat to insects hype comes to the fore again.
http://profile.yahoo.com/LK4KXFQUKVNBLF5A5OOUIMT6OY Krystle

If you follow this story and comments from people on Facebook (here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100320797196977&set=p.10100320797196977&type=1

It seems like he asphyxiated on his own vomit some hours after the competition.
http://www.facebook.com/valencia.burt Valencia Burt

Darwin Adward is next!