The Cicadas Are Here. And They’re Edible

Absolutely nobody’s favorite screaming, sex-addled superbugs are back.

That’s right – once again, it’s cicada season, specifically in the Southeast and Midwest regions of the U.S. As temperatures rise, they’re emerging in startlingly high numbers (we’re talking trillions), bearing promises of weeks filled with clogged walkways and incessant, passion-fueled shrieking.

“My one biggest tree, there are hundreds of them crawling up,” Park Ridge, Illinois, resident Nancy Kwasigroch told ABC 7 Chicago. Fellow resident Ivy Suh, added: “I feel like I’m crunching with every step. Then, you have the shells they are emerging out of. It’s yucky.”

So let’s eat them.

It’s an option, anyway. (And if you’re a pet owner, you likely discovered this already through a frantic Google search following a tug of war with your furry friend.) The safe-to-eat cicadas belong to a subcategory of animals called arthropods, a classification they share with the likes of our favorite sea-base snack, shrimp. Perhaps recently bankrupted restaurant chain Red Lobster should have seen the emerging broods as an opportunity for a comeback.

We’d certainly have lots of creature company in chowing down on the cicadas. “Everything eats insects,” Julie Lesnik, an anthropologist at Wayne State University, told Scientific American. “They are the basic nutritional element that Earth gives us. They are animal-based proteins; they have all of the same benefits as beef but in a tiny, efficient little package.”

Which is why there would be plenty of humans willing to join in the feast, too. Examples of what’s known as entomophagy, or the practice of eating bugs, can be found to this day in roughly 80% of the world’s nations. As Lesnik mentioned, insects such as cicadas serve as a cheap, accessible form of protein, not to mention containing high levels of iron, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients.

Plus, as climate change looms ever larger in our lives, it’s past time to go green or go home.  And insect farming causes far less environmental damage than cattle farming – it takes about 10% the amount of water, land and feed to raise insects for consumption as it does to raise beef, and emits about 1% the amount of greenhouse gasses.

“Raising crickets … is not the answer [to our climate crisis], but it’s a piece of the puzzle,” Claire Simons of 3 Cricketeers, which makes and sells cricket-based treats, told The Story Exchange. “We can be an example for people that this is a way to do something about it and to bring about this change that’s very much needed.”

All things to keep in mind as we watch Broods XIX and XIII emerge from their underground domiciles to yell, and mate, before returning once more to the ground. We can simply do our best to avoid thinking about the similarities between that existence and our own, as we feast.

For more on those crunchy cricket snacks (which we tried – and loved)…