“For bugs, they taste all right.”
Those words, spoken with somewhat of a grimace by 5-year-old Avery Skaggs after eating a chocolate-flavored cicada, seemed to be the agreed upon consensus by the 30 or so people that tasted cicadas at a celebration honoring the insects at the Chilo Lock #34 Park June 14.
To welcome the red-eyed cicada Brood XIV back to Clermont County, last seen in 1991, the Clermont County Park District held the cicada tasting celebration at the Chilo Park last weekend to formally reintroduce the community to the cicadas and to also see why they are are considered a delicacy in other parts of the world.
Keith Robinson, Clermont County Park District Chief Naturalist, explains why many people like to eat cicadas.