Don't eat cicadas if you are allergic to shrimp, shellfish, FDA warns

The Food and Drug Administration has a colorful warning for people with a shellfish allergy: don’t eat cicadas.

While the warning surprised many of the FDA’s Twitter followers, it turns out eating cicadas isn’t unheard of, and it’s not even the first time experts have issued the warning for those with shellfish allergies.  In fact, last month Montclair State University released a how-to on harvesting and cooking cicadas. "Brood X cicadas are one of the world’s most incredible animal phenomena," Cortni Borgerson, assistant a university assistant professor of anthropology, said in the explainer. "In a year where few of us may be traveling to see natural wonders like Africa’s great migration, or the elephant gathering of Sri Lanka, we are incredibly privileged to have this rare spectacle occurring in our very own backyards. Brood X provides an infusion of nutrients into the ecosystem, and humans have been enjoying this event for its sights, sounds and taste for millennia."