Dustin Campbell says he's not a survivalist. He'd slept on the ground before, but never really had the urge to go fully off the grid until he was dropped into the jungle to film "Naked and Afraid." The episode premiered Aug. 3.

The show drops a man and a woman who have never met in remote, often exotic locations. The pair have no clothing and limited tools. They're expected to find water and food and maintain a fire in the wilderness for 21 days.

This isn't Dustin's first time on reality TV. A few years ago, he filmed the first episode of "Buying the Bayou," called "Gator Boys," in Columbia. He also is on "T.P. Outdoors Adventures."

The West Monroe man said he signed on for the show after seeing his friend Jeremy McCaa make his first attempt.

McCaa, of Monroe, has been on "Naked and Afraid" twice. The first time, Jeremy and his partner tapped out of a brutal stay in the Philippines without fresh water. Jeremy's second attempt set a show record when he stayed in the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana for 25 days.

As soon as he saw Jeremy's first attempt, "being a wimp" and vomiting coconut, he signed on. Dustin said people with a lot of military training tap out on the show. He's just a plain-Jane country boy, but he was determined to stay.

He joked that Bill Petrus at T.P. Outdoors had people betting on how many days he'd last. He boasts that he beat Jeremy's first attempt, saying his friend would give him the same ribbing.

Dustin was paired with Sarah Wiley of North Carolina, a Marine veteran. He brought a machete, she had firestarter, and a pot was provided at the site. In January and February, the pair were in La Milpa archaeological site in Belize, Central America. He said you can study all you want to on the Internet, but it's nothing like being out there.

"It was hot down there, but it was freezing cold at night time. Wasn't no snuggling or nothing like that. I told her if she wanted to snuggle, she better get more firewood. My fiance said no. That pretty much rules," Dustin said.

He said his fiance was OK with him going to spend three weeks naked with a stranger, but she set some ground rules before he went.

He said being naked in front of a bunch of strangers, including the crew, was awkward for about the first four days. He tried to keep the bag over his privates. Then that wore off.

He said the camera crew won't eat or drink around you, but there is no begging a hamburger when the cameras are off.

Dustin, 37, ate things he'd never tried — like tarantula, scorpion, scorpion eggs, worms, bugs and lizards. You have to burn the hair off some of the spiders before you can eat them. He skipped the tarantula heads. His whole mouth went numb when he tried to eat a leech, but he said termites tasted kind of like peppermint. "I might have been just that hungry, but I started calling them peppermint bites."

He was eating the innards of the termite mound when Sarah said the bugs built it out of spit and poop. That almost made him sick.

"My partner, she built a fish trap, caught a few fish in it. But if you think you're fixing to survive off of a fish trap, you better have Plan B pretty quick," Dustin said.

It might be something to build if you're bored, he said, but it's not going to save you. She lost six pounds, and he lost 19.

He cooked a snake caught in the fish trap in an allspice leaf. Dustin also used allspice to substitute for his chewing tobacco habit, which he had to give up cold turkey once he was dropped at the filming site.

He acclimated to the local water by sipping a little more out of the stream each day. He said the water was crystal clear. he tried to make a spear and fish, but had no luck.

"I guess I watched 'Castaway' one too many times," he quipped.

By the end, he was swimming with a machete, looking for a crocodile. He got close a few times, but luckily — either for Dustin or the croc — he never got that close.

The lack of sleep was the worst part, Dustin said. Howler monkeys sounded terrifying the first night, but were harmless.

Almost every night, he was ready to burn everything just to stay warm. Three or four hours of sleep was good for them; they had to cat nap during the day. They kept nuts in the fire because they burned like coals, then would bank the fire and warm their feet where the dirt was still warm.

They found a jaguar skeleton in the jungle, and on about Day 6, the crew realized that a large predator was circling the camp. At first, Dustin thought the producers were messing with them. The fire staying lit through the night was more important than they knew.

Some of the biggest dangers were downright tiny. Bullet ants' bite hurts three times more than a red wasp, Dustin said.

"You know they're coming too because you hear the birds. The birds will follow them because when the ants come through, the insects will come up, trying to get out of the ants' way. Well, them birds are just pecking them off," he said.

Spreading ashes from their fire prevented some of the ants coming into the camp, but it wasn't fully effective.

He said if you want to try it, you should prepare for a rough time. It almost made him tap. By Day 14, he said, it felt like more suffering than surviving. He was scarred from bug bites for weeks afterward. By Day 20, you're ready to just get out. On Day 21, it feels like you drank a Red Bull.

When they came out of the jungle, he asked for a steak as his first meal. He got sidetracked by a piece of pineapple, which made him too sick to eat his meal. He finally kept down some Chic-Fil-A.

He came home with a botfly in his leg. He realized it was in there when he was in the shower after the show. He said the fly feels like someone pulling a leg hair. Despite advice to get to a doctor, he pulled it out himself at home after about a week and half.

He said he'd be willing to go back again. He joked that he'd like to do "Naked and Afraid XL" with Jeremy.

"In your mind, it's kind of like drinking 'I'll never to this again.' But when you get home and you look at it and you talk to everybody about it, you're like 'that wasn't so bad,'" Dustin said.

Follow Bonnie Bolden on Twitter @Bonnie_Bolden_ and on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/1RtsEEP.

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