- Beware, here come the cicadas.

- Well, if you can't beat 'em, you might as well eat 'em?

You gotta see this.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - We got a lot of great stories to share on this show.

But first, do you hear that hum?

Hear that buzz?

The cicadas are on their way.

- Oh, I know.

- Illinois is gonna be covered with cicadas in a way that hasn't happened in more than 200 years.

- And you know, they're not dangerous, so don't worry about that.

And we've talked to an expert that says they might even be delicious on a dinner plate, - (chuckling) Or even as a snack, as we tried.

Were they tasty?

We'll get to that in just a little bit.

- But first we're gonna tell you about this special invasion of cicadas coming to Illinois.

(upbeat music) - [Julie] It's time to stock up on earplugs, folks, because things are about to get loud.

In case you hadn't heard, the cicadas are coming.

We said the cicadas are coming!

Now, maybe you're wondering, what's the big deal?

We get cicadas every year.

It's true that annual cicadas, also known as dog days cicadas, turn up every July or August just to remind us that summer's almost over.

But there's another kind of cicada called periodical cicadas.

They're more like reclusive rock stars.

They disappear underground for years living off of tree roots and then emerge topside to loads of media hype.

They even have the bloodshot eyes to complete the look.

These periodical cicadas are grouped into 15 different broods scattered across the Eastern U.S. Each brood has a different alarm clock of sorts, set on either a 13-year or a 17-year cycle.

When the alarm goes off, the entire brood bust out of hiding so they can hurry up and mate and die.

So what's the buzz in 2024?

This spring, two different broods in Illinois are getting their wake up call at the same time.

A 13-year brood in southern Illinois and a 17-year brood in northern Illinois will make their first joint appearance in more than 200 years.

The last time this happened, Illinois wasn't even a state.

Before you picture skies darkened with trillions of insects, don't worry.

The broods really overlap geographically.

In places where the ground has been disturbed a lot over the years, like Chicago, will miss out on most of the fun.

And by fun, we mean lawns and trees blanketed with cicadas screaming at the tops of their lungs.

Actually, all that noise comes from male cicadas doing a serious core workout.

They have a special body part that they vibrate by contracting tiny muscles hundreds of times a second.

Then they use their abdomen like an amp, cranking up the sound to lawnmower levels on the decibel chart.

Believe it or not, this earsplitting racket is the fella's mating song, and lady cicadas dig it.

One thing leads to another, and the next thing you know, a new generation of baby cicadas hatches, burrows underground, and the whole cycle starts all over again.

See you in 2041.

(upbeat music) - [Phil] The cicadas are coming, the cicadas are coming, in remarkable numbers and noise.

And if you can't beat 'em, eat 'em.

That's the possibility posed by Dr. Gina Hunter, professor of anthropology at Illinois State University.

She also is the author of the 2021 book, "Edible Insects, A Global History."

This year, Illinois will be covered in cicadas.

(cicada buzzing) They pose no health risk.

In fact, all those cicadas will bring a boost to the food chain.

- Birds will eat them.

You know, farm animals, chickens, you know, and pets.

So yeah, and even people, some people might eat them.

(chuckling) - [Phil] People, you say, eating bugs?

- So although Americans, and you know, most Europeans don't regularly eat insects, a lot of people across the world eat insects.

Some estimates put it at some 2 billion people in the world regularly consume insects.

- [Phil] Dr. Hunter is one of them.

- So for instance, I have raised mealworms, and those are a common food for poultry and people can eat them, and that's the larvae of a darkling beetle.

So the beetle has a hard exoskeleton and the larvae is soft.

And it's, you know, they're often called worms.

And so mealworm, they're not a worm, they're larvae.

But that's the edible stage.

- [Phil] In fact, of the world's 2,300 species of edible insects, the most common is the beetle.

- For mealworms that I have raised and eaten, I freeze them to kill them, and then rinse, boil, fry.

The first time I did it, you know, so I just kind of blanched them and then I threw them in the pan.

And that's a little bit weird because then they seem to move.

(laughing) You've got a pan full of moving worms, it's like.

But then the smell was delicious, kind of, I don't know, nutty, bacony, you know?

And I was like, this is just bacon bits on top of a salad or something.

They're crunchy and pretty yummy.

- [Phil] In America, edible insects can be found for purchase mostly online.

- Often they're flavored.

You can get pizza-flavored crickets, you know that.

So yeah, they've been dried and they're gonna be just dried, crunchy, salty things.

- [Phil] Authentic insect dishes can be found only in major metropolises and nowhere in central Illinois.

So to get a taste of the real thing, Dr. Hunter went to Mexico.

Her favorite, escamoles.

- Escamoles are the larvae and pupa of ants that live under agave.

They're harvested from colonies, from under agave plants.

One of my favorite things to eat is sweet corn.

And I love very early, young, you know, sweet corn kernels.

And escamoles to me were like having a side dish of young, early corn that was...

It was buttery and salty.

There were some onions and peppers in there.

It was delicious.

So they're very healthful in that sense that they have, that they're high quality protein.

- [Phil] Hunter acknowledges that people can be turned off by the site of insects, especially on a dinner plate.

But that's largely from cultural conditioning.

- Every time I've been to, you know, a great, you know, a big seafood market, I'm always like, "And people think that insects look bad?"

I mean, some of the seafood we eat does not look or smell very attractive.

(chuckling) - [Phil] Just one warning regarding cicadas.

People with shellfish allergies should avoid eating them.

Otherwise, Dr. Hunter suggests people take advantage of this year's abundance of cicadas and get cooking in the kitchen.

- You know, right when they emerge, then you can collect them.

And I think if they're in large numbers, you should be able to collect quite a few of them and then cook them like you would maybe shrimp.

(cicadas buzzing) - Phil, I thought we were going out to lunch.

- We're gonna have some lunch.

- Okay.

- But maybe not exactly what you'd hope for.

We were just listening to the bug expert talk about eating bugs, right?

- Yes.

- So I thought we'd give it a chance right now with some delicious cicadas.

Now I know what she said, we're not supposed to have the freeze-dried or whatever, the prepared version, 'cause they're not as delicious.

But I think you failed to root around and get some larvae for us, or did you do that?

- I tried this morning, you know.

- No probs.

- It's not in my skillset.

Sorry.

- No probs.

- Okay, so we're gonna- - Wait, we're gonna eat these?

- We're gonna eat these.

And I ordered these, got them through Amazon.

Where else do you get things these days?

- I mean, obviously, that's where you get your cicadas.

- I think it was about 12 bucks.

It says, "Annual cicadas," and it says, "Ready to eat cicada, seasoned with salt.

No colors, no preservatives, no MSG."

- Good, thank goodness.

- That sounds as if they're right up your alley.

- I mean, there's no calorie content.

I mean, I'm watching my weight, so I don't think I could.

Nope, can't do it.

- I don't know what lurks in here, okay?

I don't know if it's a tiny larva, if it's a full grown cicada, but I did bring this, just in case.

- There's no dipping sauce or... Oh, Lord.

- Just in case.

I don't know.

I don't think they're alive.

They don't feel as if they're alive, but, you know, and I know it doesn't specify cicadas, but, hey, it's our only defense today, right?

Keep your hand- - It's lemon scent.

It's probably Pledge.

- Might be a nice accoutrement in terms of the flavor.

- I was expecting some ketchup.

- No.

- Maybe a little hot sauce.

- No, no, we're gonna have 'em as they are.

Ready?

- This we you speak of, who is this we?

- Oh, you know what's great?

The pouch has a resealable thingy, so in case you don't finish 'em, you can take 'em, put 'em in your pocket for later.

- Oh, you can take it home to your wife.

- Uh-oh, oh, they're looking delicious.

- Oh god.

- There they are.

There they are.

Now we're gonna have to pause, I think to- - I'm out, I'm out.

- You are not out.

- I am out.

- Oh, how many do you want, 14 of 'em?

- Oh my, there's so many.

There's so many.

- There's so many.

- Now you can only have...

I'd say there's probably about 26 of 'em.

So you can have upwards of 13 and I'm cutting you off.

You can have no more.

But if you really want, I'll give you an extra one, if you're good today.

(gentle music) (gentle music) Okay, let's do it.

Let's do it.

- (sighs) Okay.

- Mm.

- Wait.

- Mm, so good, mm.

- Did you see that?

- Now it's your turn.

Now it's your turn.

Why don't you... - Wait, where's my...

I need a, oh god.

- Okay, I'm doing it.

Ready?

Mm, bug.

Ah, that's a good way to eat one.

Just kind of do it like a shot.

- Like a pill.

- Like a shot, yeah.

- Like an aspirin.

- Yep.

- I could rub your neck like I do my dog to get a pill to go down.

- I could eat these all day, but I won't.

- Ready?

- I'm not gonna say it's bad, but it's certainly not good.

- They're just crunchy.

(gagging) - It's like if you were eating out of an ashtray, that's what you'd think.

Like, he's like, "I'm so hungry, I could eat all these things in this ashtray."

- I mean, there's no real taste.

- No.

- It's just crunchy.

- Yeah, dried out husks.

And that's what the bug expert was saying, that if you eat bugs as prepared in an indigenous people's area or whatever, or people who know how to make delicious larvae goop or whatever, yum, yum, yum.

This, just kind of a novelty.

- I have my doubts about larva yum, yum.

(both laughing) I mean, I ate one, I could say I ate one.

Am I looking forward to these guys littering my lawn?

Will I make a pie out of them?

Probably not.

- Are you looking forward to every time you have a salad in your office, I'm gonna sprinkle some of these?

Ooh, a leg just came out.

- What grosses me out when I felt their little legs touch my tongue.

- You know, like they said, cicada invasion in your mouth.

- Mother nature is certainly interesting.

She has a lot of interesting animals out here.

But I don't know how I'm gonna feel about all the cicadas everywhere; I don't like it.

- It is gonna be kinda freaky.

But there are some people who are comfortable around all sorts of critters.

There's a long-time keeper, she's been here for decades, who has a special way of talking to the animals.

Roz Wolfram speaks multiple languages.

There's English, of course, but she also speaks fluent rhino as well as eloquent giraffe, along with a smattering of gazelle and a few other four-legged dialects.

The connection comes naturally to Wolfram, the dean of the Peoria Zoo's animal keepers.

- I believe I've had the intuition since I was little.

I've always had a special connection with animals.

I think it's definitely my calling.

- [Phil] It's one thing for a keeper to observe different mannerisms among different species.

But Wolfram, like Dr. Doolittle, has an innate knack for animal kingdom communication.

- It probably started about four years old.

My mom didn't have to tell me when my dog was upset and leave him alone.

I just intuitively knew, okay, he doesn't want me to pet him anymore.

And it's just a feeling that I would happen to get.

- [Phil] In fact, Wolfram addresses zoo animals much like she would a house pet.

During our visit, that's how she tried to connect with Harris, a 5,000 pound rhino who got skittish around our cameras.

- Harris.

(whistling) There's my good boy.

He is such a good boy.

Yeah, yeah.

So right now, like the way he comes up and then backs up, he's telling me, "I'm still nervous.

I'm not used to what's happening in my barn right now."

- [Phil] Normally, Harris would come right up to Wolfram.

Such closeness is important.

- I can get him to do, you know, pull his head out and I can rub his head and his horn, and basically, it helps us make sure that every part of his body is still healthy, you know, whether you feel a bump or you see a scratch.

- [Phil] When they're in close proximity, Wolfram keeps alert for certain movements.

- Tossing their heads instead of swinging, and believe it or not, there's a big difference between swinging and tossing.

You know, swinging, they're just maybe going back and forth, and that's more of a playful.

But if they're moving really fast, that's kind of a uh-oh.

- [Phil] Meantime, she watches his ears.

If they perk up, she has to be really careful.

- Their hearing is so excellent that they might hear something that you don't, and they will turn to look at what they're hearing, just to get a full hearing, surround sound like.

And if you're in their way when they're turning, they don't care.

- [Phil] Wolfram also spends a lot of time with giraffes, Taji, Vivian, and Emmy.

They might not seem as dangerous as the rhinos, but if frightened, giraffes can use their long legs in attack mode.

- Their legs, they can kick out, they can kick this way, they can kick forward.

They can kick a front and a back leg at the same time, as long as it's opposite sides.

So their legs is what you have to watch out for the most.

With the giraffe, it would be the way they're holding their heads, whether they're holding it upright and trying to look like as big as they can.

Then that means like there's something in the environment that's making them nervous.

The flaring of the nostrils, usually their nostrils are not like that.

You see, Vivian is more relaxed with her nostrils.

- [Phil] Such readings are important because Wolfram has to get close to the giraffes.

- Being able to touch a giraffe is probably one of the hardest things to train with a giraffe, because it goes so against everything that is ingrained in them.

- [Phil] Training involves getting the giraffes to exercise their tongues, which, by the way, are purple to ward off sunburn.

- Their tongues are used for all their food, all their testing of the environment.

So their tongues are active, you know, pretty much 24/7.

- [Phil] All this communication and interaction is vital at the zoo, especially when animals become unusually reclusive.

- Well, animals are very good at hiding when they're sick or injured, because it is part of their wiredness, because they have to hide it.

So once you learn these subtle nuances of how the animal is moving, you can use that to promote their health or their welfare or their psychological being.

And in making that better for the animals, you make it better for the visitors.

And if you make it better for the visitors, you make it better for the whole community.

- [Phil] And the interactions make things better for Roz Wolfram as well.

- What do I like most about my job?

Every day is different.

Even though I work with the same animals, I have to do the same tasks every day, the animals are different every day.

There's nothing like coming in and seeing a giraffe and having it walk up to you and take food from your hand.

It can change your whole attitude on the day.

(playful music) (playful music) - [Julie] The "You Gotta See This!"

team headed to the Miller Park Zoo to find the next featured creature.

She comes from the South American rainforest.

She's fuzzy looking, and she has eight legs and a face only a mother could love.

Meet Gwen, (playful music) the Honduran curly haired tarantula.

Sophia Roseberry from the Miller Park Zoo says that Gwen is her favorite animal in the entire zoo.

- She is not as scary as we think.

She's far more scared of us, which makes me want to make her feel as comfortable as possible, which is the case with all of our animals here.

But once you get to form a bond with them, they make you melt, just like any pet would.

- [Julie] While most of us aren't ready to cuddle up with a tarantula, they are fascinating.

One of the most distinctive traits of tarantulas is the presence of bristly hairs all over their bodies.

- So she does look very fluffy.

I say she's like a puppy with extra legs.

But these hairs are not something you want to be petting like a dog.

- Right.

- They are called urticating hairs, which are very irritating.

If you've ever been...

I say it's kind of like if you've ever been bit by a mosquito, you get really itchy.

- Mm-hmm.

- That's like what it's like when her hairs get burrowed into your skin.

It's not very fun.

- [Julie] Gwen may have eight legs, but it's her spidey senses that keep her safe from predators.

- One thing about spiders is they don't have ears like we do.

They hear through vibrations.

And when you have eight legs, that's a lot of vibrations coming into you.

So she can just hear everything that's going on right now, and it can be a little stressed out because you know, loud sounds, tiny animal.

A lot of things usually want to eat her.

- [Julie] Gwen is only four years old.

(playful music) She keeps her girlish figure by eating only one to two crickets a week.

But the way she eats them is the stuff of nightmares.

- One thing about her is her fangs.

Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of people are worried about being bit by a spider.

She doesn't bite in the sense we do.

She has two fangs that she kind of does like an injection into whatever she's trying to eat, and it liquefies the inside and turns it into a nice bug smoothie for her.

(both chuckling) - [Julie] She's not fully grown yet.

Tarantula has become fully mature around eight to 10 years old.

She is constantly growing and molting her skin.

(playful music) When she's fully grown, she will have a six-inch leg span.

While I may not be tarantula's number one fan, there are plenty of people who keep these guys as pets.

- There are tons and tons and tons of species of tarantulas that make great pets.

They aren't like your typical pet dog that you're gonna cuddle with.

They are, like you saw me doing, you kind of have them on your hand or you look at them.

So not a great companion, fun to look at and care for.

- [Julie] I think I'll leave the caring for these creepy crawlies to the experts here at Miller Park Zoo.

(playful music) That show was really fun.

It was packed full of people and creatures and all kinds of fun stuff.

- All over the animal kingdom, two legs, four legs, however many legs are on a cicada.

I think a lot of 'em are still in my mouth.

Yuck.

- It was terrible.

But you never know what we'll be up to unless you watch the next "You Gotta See This!"

(upbeat music) We're gonna ask our coworkers if they'd like to enjoy these with us.

Ready?

- Okay, hey, Mark.

- Hi.

- Amy's with me.

You know Amy.

- Hi, Amy.

- Would you like to enjoy one of these delicious cicadas?

- You've been working really hard, Mark.

We think you deserve a treat.

- You deserve a treat.

Oh, no.

- No!

- I think that's a no.

- No, no!

- He went behind his desk.

- Let's go find a real man.

- Oh, here, you want, just for later, I'll put it here, a little snack.

- Leave some for later.

- It's just a little- - Just one.

- Just a little snacky poo for you.

- Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

- [Phil] It'll be awesome, that's good TV.

- [Julie] That's why we got the camera.

- Come on, do it.

- That's a good time.

- Mark is up for it over here, our other Mark.

- You should feed it to him, just like a mama bird.

Drop it into his mouth.

- No, no.

- No MSG.

- You get to pick yours.

- Mm, protein.

- [Phil] Take whatever one you prefer.

Take a good one.

And you get two.

You get eat one, get one.

- Mark Lasswell, IT director.

- Taste kinda like a nut.

- Kind of.

- [Phil] Like a like a really ratty, crappy old nut.

- Dry.

- An old nut that's dried out.

- Yes.

- Tastes like a nut.

- Okay.

Thank you, Mark.

- Oh, give him another.

- Oh, oh.

- There you go.

- Here we go.

- That's a good one.

- [Phil] That looks delicious.

- Tastes kind of dusty.

(Julie laughing) - [Phil] She gave you the bad one.

- [Julie] But they all taste like that.

- Dusty bugs.

- Take a big drink, because you're gonna have leg residue for a while.

- Now you really wanna wash your hands.

(Julie laughing) - Thank you, Jed.

- Mm, hungry.

- You could have a snack of a cicada right now.

- Oh yeah, you know, that sounds... - I know that you would love to try one.

- Do it.

- Would you wanna try one?

- Do it, do it.

- Absolutely.

- All right.

- You only live once.

Okay, here we go.

- [Phil] She closes her eyes.

- And?

- It's not bad.

- See, see.

- Oh, what a delicious treat.

- [Phil] You're gonna really enjoy this spring.

- What do you think it tastes like?

- Yeah, I don't know.

Nothing.

- Nothing.

- Something.

- Dusty.

- Sunflower seed?

Like a sunflower seed.

- [Phil] From like 14 years ago?

- Maybe.

- [Julie] And a little dried up.

- A little dry sunflower.

- Husky, like a husk of something?

- No, quit giving her words.

- Like you were chewing things on your fender of your car.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)