welcome to Indiana

I have yet to see a live cicada, and so far only a few carcasses have shown up on the neighborhood sidewalks. But apparently elsewhere in Bloomington they are more numerous.

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. […]

Ripani said recent newspaper articles extolling the tastiness of cicada cuisine should have warned people that dining on the bugs can be dangerous for some people.

“Severe food allergies such as this can be fatal,” he said. “I feel that needs to be stressed in these articles.”

Duly noted.