Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 11:41

"And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth is an abomination; it shall not be eaten." — Leviticus 11:41 (ASV)

And every creeping thing. — Besides the eight reptiles which defile by touching their carcass, and which are enumerated in Leviticus 11:29-30, all other creeping things upon the earth, with the exception of those specified in Leviticus 11:21-22, are to be treated as an abomination, and must not be eaten, though their carcasses do not defile by coming in contact with them. From the fact that the creeping things here proscribed are expressly described as "creeping upon the earth," the administrators of the law during the second Temple concluded that the small worms which do not creep upon the earth do not fall under this prohibition.

Hence, worms bred in vegetables, fruit, and certain kinds of food are permitted. Thus, the worms in figs, dates, and berries, the mites in peas, beans, and lentils, the maggots in cheese, and the insects found in the flesh and under the skin of fishes, are not proscribed, and only when they quit the object in which they have been generated, and creep about upon the ground, are they forbidden. Hence, the Chaldee Version of Jonathan renders the passage "and every creeping thing that flieth is unclean unto you" (Deuteronomy 14:19) by "and all bees and wasps, and all worms of vegetables and of pulse which leave the objects of food and fly like birds, are unclean unto you."