Although all crawling creatures (except the types of locusts mentioned above) are prohibited for consumption (since none of them satisfy the requirements for permitted animals), only the carcasses of eight types of them impart ritual defilement. You must consider the following ritually defiled among crawling creatures that crawl on the ground: the weasel, the mouse, the toad and all varieties of its species (see Figures 26-28), the hedgehog, the chameleon, the lizard, the snail, and the mole (see Figures 29-33).
These are the ones among all crawling creatures that you must consider ritually defiled, in that anyone who touches them when they are dead will be ritually defiled until he immerses himself in a mikveh and then waits until evening. A piece of the carcass of one of these creatures imparts ritual defilement only if its volume is equal to or greater than that of a lentil.
