What would you do for a buck?

If you were a preschool kid, you might pick up your toys or feed the dog. If you were a grade school kid, you might load the dishwasher or vacuum the floors. If you are a teenager, you would do anything if other guys are around “egging” you on, especially if those guys included your adult Sunday School teacher.


One teenage boy, yes my son, was in this situation last night, of all places, guys Bible study. He was coerced to eat a mosquito eater, also know as a Crane Fly, or more commonly known as Daddy Long Legs. Why? You guessed it, for a dollar. When asked why he did this. His reply, “Mitchell was going to do it but he changed his mind. I said I'd do it.” Oh, to get “one up” on the next guy. Perhaps there was a reason Mitchell changed his mind. Perhaps he had a moment of sanity and realized the disgust involved. None the less, my son chose to “eat” this unpalatable creature. He told me, “The wings did kinda get stuck going down.”


The plot thickens. One of his friend’s dad told my son he had heard mosquito eaters were extremely poisonous. The father even called my house to convey this to me as well. At this point, John is starting to ponder if eating this creature for a dollar was really the wisest thing to do. To settle his concern, I searched online. All I could find was an article on Wikipedia. John informed me, “you can’t trust Wikipedia, my teacher said so.” I called the pediatrician. Poor lady being interrupted at 9:30 at night with a question that I would loved to have seen her reaction to. I don’t think she knew what to say. She advised me to contact poison control to make sure it was not poisonous and we would not need to go to the ER. I called poison control. However, the man who answered could not contain his chuckle. He said he did not think so but would look it up. He confirmed it was indeed not poisonous, but my son may feel nausea and experience vomiting. I informed John of this. He was relieved that his endeavor to make an easy buck did not create cause for us to spend the night in the emergency room. He did admit his stomach was not feeling well. My thought…don’t’ wake me up when you are vomiting wings.

For those of you dying to know, he did not get his dollar!