What’s for breakfast? At Chicago hotel hosting DNC event, there may have been mealworms

CHICAGO (AP) — Mealworms could have sickened not less than one particular person at a Chicago lodge occasion earlier this week through the Democratic Nationwide Conference, the town’s police superintendent mentioned Thursday.

Whereas the investigation continues, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling mentioned clues level towards folks placing mealworms on tables.

“I’m unsure that these had been maggots,” Snelling mentioned Thursday when requested about the potential of bugs dropped on numerous tables. “There was sawdust, in order that they had been in all probability mealworms. They give the impression of being the identical. However that’s nonetheless below investigation.”

Mealworms are frequent bugs which have wormlike, yellow-to-brown coloured our bodies. They’re the larval type of the mealworm beetle. Maggots are related in look, however soft-bodied with white to clear colour. They’re the larval stage of flies.

A number of suspects, all girls, entered the Fairmont Chicago, which was internet hosting a breakfast for delegates on the DNC and started putting “unknown objects” onto tables with meals earlier than leaving the realm at round 6:45 a.m. Wednesday, police mentioned.

One one who ingested the meals was handled by medical personnel and launched on the scene, in response to Chicago police.

The Fairmont Lodge confirmed the “disruption,” including in an announcement that workers “acted instantly to wash and sanitize the realm, making certain that the occasion may proceed with out additional incident.”

Earlier this yr, activists launched a whole bunch of mealworms, maggots and crickets on the Washington, D.C., lodge of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to protest the conflict in Gaza.