Larvae. They are the immature, wingless form of bugs before they become adults. In other words, the teenage bug. Pick any bug, and someone has eaten or continues to eat its larvae. In the first century in his Historia Naturalis, Pliny wrote that Roman Aristocrats ate beetle larvae prepared in wine and flour. In fourth-century Greece, Aristotle detailed the harvest of cicada larvae. Even to this day, larvae decorate plates around the world. For example, Chinese beekeepers consume bee larvae, and Japanese foodies enjoy aquatic fly larvae sautéed in sugar and soy sauce.

In the United States, we eat bugs as a dare, a challenge, something cool to do. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone who eats larvae for their nightly dinner. So when I tried “Larvets Original Worm Snax” larvae, I was excited. I wanted a surprise. But after popping a barbecue flavored dried larva in my mouth, I was definitely disappointed. The larvae themselves had only a slight gravelly taste, which was overpowered by the barbecue flavor. The problem was, the barbecue flavor was terrible. As in, way-less-than-Lays-quality. I felt ripped off by the fact that I got two grams of dry mouth for about $5.

My only hope was that they would make up for their bad flavor in nutrition facts. I don’t eat red meat, so I thought that this could be a protein boost. Nope, not that either. My bugs had 1 g of protein in the entire pack. Significant and efficient? More like wallet-draining. As fun as it is to eat bugs, these ones did not live up to the fun gross-factor-taboo.