Apparently, dining on 17-year locusts (or "Brood X Cicadas") isn't for everyone. My friend Walt tipped me to this article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about a Bloomington, IN man who suffered a serious allergic reaction after dining on "Cicadas Scampi":

A man who cooked and ate nearly 30 cicadas sought medical treatment after suffering a strong allergic reaction to the sauteed insects. The man showed up at a Bloomington clinic Thursday covered from head-to-toe in hives, and sheepishly told a doctor he'd caught and ate the cicadas after sauteing them in butter with crushed garlic and basil.

"He said they didn't taste too bad, but his wife didn't care for the aroma," said Dr. Al Ripani, the doctor who treated the man at Promptcare East. The man, who has a history of asthma and shellfish allergies, suffered a "significant allergic reaction," after eating the cicadas, Ripani said. "Severe food allergies such as this can be fatal," he said.

The University of Maryland Cicada-Licious Cookbook [PDF file] does, in fact, have a disclaimer that states "We ask that you please take special caution if you have other food allergies, such as soy, nuts or shellfish, or if you know of any contact allergies that you may have to other insects." In fact, the cookbook's preface includes this frightening blurb:

An Introduction to Entomophagy; or, How I Learned to Love the Bug

Eating bugs sounds disgusting? If you have ever eaten a crawfish, lobster, crab, or shrimp then you have already eaten members of the class Arthropoda, of which insects are a part. So popping a big juicy beetle, cricket, or cicada into your mouth is only a step away. You have, in fact, probably already eaten many pounds of insects in your lifetime.

Most Americans don't realize that they are eating a pound or two of insects each year. This is because insects are a part of all processed foods from bread to tomato ketchup - it's impossible to keep mass-produced food 100% insect-free. There are regulations stating the maximum amount of bug bits that food can contain and still be fit for human consumption.

These bits, unseen, have been ground up into tiny pieces in such items as strawberry jams, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, applesauce, frozen chopped broccoli, etc. For example, the "Food Defect Action Levels", as currently defined by the Food and Drug Administration state that macaroni and noodle products can have 225 or more insect parts per 225 grams of product (4). This may sound disgusting, but these insect parts actually make some food products more nutritious.

Think of it this way: low carb protein. Bon appetit, mes amis.

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