Crickets add some crunch to chocolate at insect fair

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Like most 7-year-olds, Alec Mann went straight for the chocolate.

After all, it is chocolate, even if there are crickets mixed in. The insect deli was just part of Penn State University's 10th annual Great Insect Fair.

"I like the worm tunnel," said Alec, who enjoyed the fair so much last year that his mother brought him back Saturday. "They give you a list of bugs, and you crawl through the tunnel and try to find all the bugs on the list. I saw a cockroach."

Of course, it's not every day that finding a cockroach counts as a highlight. But that's what the Great Insect Fair -- the showcase event for Penn State's entomology department, drawing an estimated 5,000 visitors each year -- is all about, said Maryann Frazier, a senior extension associate and coordinator of this year's fair.

"The fair is an effort by our department to show regular people the beauty and utility and value of insects," said Frazier. Exhibits include everything from insect collections under glass to explanations of how information gleaned from studying insects can help solve crimes.

Of course, the insect deli has long been one of the fair's most popular attractions.

Visitors this year could sample black-bean-and-cream-cheese roll-ups with wax moth larvae and corn chips topped with a sweet red-pepper-and-mealworm dip.

Although both are very Westernized foods, deli supervisor Dorothy Blair, an assistant professor of nutrition, said the idea is to let people know that for much of the world insects are a viable -- and plentiful -- source of food, packed with protein, fat and minerals.

'Sort of like M&M's'

And then there's the chocolate, either with mealworms or "Chocolate Chirpies" with bits of cricket mixed in.

"Last year, we ran out of the Chocolate Chirpies," Blair said. "We had to make about 6,000 of them this year, and we're hoping to make those last through the day."

One might not even notice the mealworms in the chocolate, but crickets give the treats a definite crunch.

"It's sort of like M&M's, only inside out," with the chocolate on the outside and the crunchy candy inside, said 7-year-old Emily Paulsen.

The chocolate wasn't the biggest thrill for Emily, though. Last year, she finally got up the courage to handle the giant African millipede -- a foot-long critter with hundreds of tiny legs -- only to find the millipede had been put away.

"She's been talking about it all year, how she wanted to come back this year and hold it," said Greg Paulsen, Emily's father.

Less than an hour after the fair opened, Emily had the millipede in hand.

"It's sort of like a comb crawling up your arm," she said. "It was neat."

Much of the fair is geared toward children, like the talking Volkswagen Beetle painted to look like a ladybug, and the "Insect Olympics," complete with cockroach races.

"The idea is the kids are the hook," Frazier said. "Kids are more open to a lot of this stuff, and then they are able to get their parents involved."

But children aren't just visitors -- they also make up a good portion of the volunteers who help put on the fair. The millipede that so enthralled Emily was one of several exhibits in the "Insect Zoo" being displayed by youngsters.

"It's neat to see this type of thing," said Drew Cingel, the 14-year-old who served as caretaker of the millipede and who has volunteered for four years. "Kids who maybe come in scared of bugs get to touch them and hold them. Sometimes their parents do, too. It's just fun for everybody."