I'm eating bugs in Selfridges, get me out of here

Edible tarantulas are on sale in Selfridges where customers are being offered the chance to put themselves through their own DIY bushtucker trial like those in ITV's I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! The spider, a non-poisonous haplopelma species, tastes like "a slightly earthy pork scratching" and "a bit like biltong", according to customers brave enough to try it.

Oven-baked, not fried, and packed full of protein, it is apparently extremely healthy. Student Ailsa Duncan, 21, from Bermondsey, said: "It's not as bad as it looks, once you get past the thought of it and the funny texture."

But a group of sixth-form students were not impressed.

Alisha Cranstoun, 16, from Northamptom, said: "I screamed when I even touched it. Urgh! There's no way I'd eat that. If someone gave that to me for Christmas I'd run out of the room."

Diners are instructed to pull the fangs out of the head before eating because they are "a little hard". The £15.99 tarantulas are from Cambodia, where they are a delicacy and were eaten to stave off hunger during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Other bugs for sale at Selfridges include chocolate covered giant ants, Thai green curry crickets and worm crisps.