A man has told how he is addicted to eating bugs and has consumed over 5,000 species in the past 11 years.

To satisfy his cravings David Gracer, 47, from Providence, Rhode Island, keeps a constant stock of his favorite treats, which include fly pupa, cockroaches and scorpions, in his basement freezer.

In a preview for tonight’s episode of TLC’s My Crazy Obsession, the married father-of-one demonstrates how he uses a net to hunt for creepy crawlies in the undergrowth and ‘painlessly’ kills them via a freezing method.

Mr Gracer, who works as an English teacher, admits that his diet is unconventional.

But defending his bizarre eating habit, he explains that it is just like people eating marine crustaceans – which are also considerably more expensive.

‘Bugs, as long as they’re in the ocean – crabs, shrimp and lobster – are just fine to eat and people can spend quite a bit of money for them. But whereas bugs on the land, suddenly it’s all ewww.’

However his wife, Kim Jason, seems unenthused by his fondness for foraging, which has gradually turned into a full-blown obsession.

‘David’s interest in eating insects just kept getting bigger, bigger and bigger,’ she describes.

The couple’s basement freezer contains over 12,000 insects, including 20 different species.

It is estimated that more than half the world’s population eat a variety of flying, crawling, and biting bugs.