COLUMBIA, S.C. — To eat or not to eat cicadas? That is the question. Some restaurants have added cicada-themed foods to their menus, but are the hibernating insects safe to eat?
“Yes and no. But there are some things to think about when you eat them. Are they safe to eat yes?” said Jill Michels, the director of the Palmetto Poison Center at the University of South Carolina.
Historically, these insects have been consumed as a source of protein.
“Native Americans certainly had insects, including cicadas, as a big part of their diet," Eric Benson, entomology professor at Clemson University, said. "And insects, in general, are high in protein, low in fat.”
If you’re thinking about eating one of the creepy crawlers, there are a few things to consider, especially since they’ve been in hibernation underground for the past 13-17 years.
“Number one, they can have bacterial contamination as well, so they can be dirty, so to speak," Michels said. "But then they’re living underground, and they’re feeding off the tree, and they can have environmental contaminations.”
Because of the potential for contamination, you should wait until they’ve been cooked before eating them.
“Certainly, if I were to eat a cicada, I would choose to eat them when they’re in what we call the teneral state or when they’ve just molted, and they’re still soft," Benson said. "They don’t have the wings fully developed, and I wouldn’t eat a cicada raw; I would cook it.”
One more thing you should consider before popping one in your mouth - they’re descendants of seafood.
“And what people don’t seem to think about is you can actually have an allergy," Michels said. "If you have a seafood allergy, like to lobster and shrimp, you can also have an allergy to cicadas.”
So would you eat one? The Palmetto Poison Center added that cicadas do not sting or bite.
