Can I Eat a Scorpion?

Question:

On an episode of Survivorman, Les Stroud cooked grasshoppers, stating if you didn’t, you might get a tapeworm. But he ate a raw scorpion–couldn’t one just as easily get a tapeworm from a scorpion?

Submitted by – Doug, Oklahoma City, OK

Answer:

Here’s what I think I know: Grasshoppers are herbivores. They can eat tapeworm eggs and larvae, maintain them in their gut, and pass them to you. Scorpions are carnivores with a problem–they can only digest liquid food. They, therefore, begin liquefying their prey with some pretty potent juices before dining. They cannot host a tapeworm