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Wednesday, 9 February 2005, 19:40 GMT

Cockroaches tickle Indian palate

Ramesh Kumar eating a cockroach Cockroaches give most people the creeps, but one man in southern India licks his lips when he sees them.

Ramesh Kumar, 25, says he has been eating the pests for years.

"I used to like insects and lizards from childhood," he told Reuters television. "After catching them for so long I have lost all fears about them."

Now Mr Kumar, a goldsmith in the city of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu state, says he wants to eat 50 in a minute and break the world record.

"The present record in the Guinness Book stands in the name of a person who ate 36 cockroaches. I want to make it at least 50," he says.

His liking for snacking on cockroaches developed gradually, he says.

As a youngster he began catching them to see what they tasted like, and his fondness for the tough, beetle-like insects grew.

Mr Kumar also has other records in mind.

He says he is willing to spend a day cooped up in a coffin-sized glass case with 25,000 cockroaches, if that's what it takes.



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Australian roaches acquire pet status (20 May 03 |  Asia-Pacific )

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