Bug Bonanza

On September 16, 2006, Dave Gracer, a man from Rhode Island who likes to promote the positive aspects of eating bugs, came to CNE to demonstrate how to find, cook and prepare bugs for eating. ...and he's coming again Saturday SEPTEMBER 29, 2007 from 12-4pm! Call (315) 671-1350 for prices and details.

Gracer led the 75 eager and anxious participants on a collecting expedition for bugs in the fields and woods of Baltimore Woods. He then discussed the benefits and negative aspects of bug eating (called entomophagy).

Collecting bugs to eat	A family gathering bugs to eat	Collecting more bugs to eat
Easy now...	Orb Web Weaving Spider	Fresh Katdydid!

He soon put on his cooking apron and went to work preparing bugs he brought along and bugs collected out in the fields and woods.

Bug Chef Dave Gracer with a bowl of freshly cooked cicadas	Chef Dave cooking bugs	Serving up a tray of cicadas

Some of the delightful dishes included crickets with rice, cicadas with rice and vegetables, ant pupae with rice, giant water bugs and katydids.

There were also some bugs that were "store bought" such as cheddar mealworms, BBQ mealworms and bacon and cheddar crickets.

Cicadas to munch on	Crickets and rice

The participants found the whole experience educational and a real culinary treat. The majority of them actually enjoyed eating the bugs and was surprised that the bugs did not taste disgusting. Some, like the giant water bugs and the katydids they said were actually quite tasty!

Bug-of-War
All summer long the camp counselors kept saying that if they never won a regular rope tug-of-war against the campers they would challenge the campers to a Bug-of-War at the Bug Bonanza. Well, the counselors never won a rope tug-of-war all summer long so they had their Bug-of-War against any child 12 and under. By the time the children had devoured more than 250 assorted bugs the three brave counselors that dared to show up had only ingested about 30 bugs. The counselors quickly conceded a "win" to the children and left with their heads hanging down.

Dave Locastro cutting into a honeycomb	Dave Locastro extracting honey	Spider exhibit from Cornell
Live false scorpians	Red Backed Salamander	A sphinx moth caterpillar found in the field

Pretending to eat a live hissing cockroach	Eating crickets for real!