Ex-pest exterminator survives being lost in the Outback by eating termites

[Jenna]

Lost in the rocky, remote Australian Outback, a former pest exterminator faced dehydration and death. Desperate for food, he turned to what he knew best — bugs, he said Wednesday.

Theo Rosmulder, 52, managed to survive for four days by feasting on termites and other insects before local Aborigines happened upon him Tuesday and brought him back to civilization.

A weary-looking Rosmulder told reporters that he found some relief from hunger at a giant termite mound. "I just hit the top of the termite nest off and got stuck into them," Rosmulder said.

"Termites don't taste too bad," he said at a news conference in the southwestern Australian mining town of Laverton.

Rosmulder was suffering from dehydration but otherwise in "surprisingly good condition," Western Australia state police Sgt. Graham Clifford said. He said the insects and termites provided Rosmulder a bit of moisture and some protein.

"He kept eating what he used to kill," Clifford said.

On Tuesday morning, a couple members of a local Aboriginal community who were out shooting spotted Rosmulder about 6 miles from his camp.

By KRISTEN GELINEAU | Associated Press Writer
3:01 AM CDT, July 30, 2008

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...tory?track=rss

[Captain America]

Something about this story bugs me. When he was working as an exterminator did he use poison or did he just eat the pest all gone?

[Jenna]

There has to be a Terminator joke in here somewhere!

[Hawk1]

The man is an idiot..anyone who wanders about the outback without food, water, sat phone etc. Its not the place to play around in. I saw him on the local news tonight, and I gotta tell ya..not all the neurons are firing..if you follow me..

Lets hope his pockets are deep enough to pay for all the aircraft and emergency services that it took to find him