Cicada Ice Cream No Longer for Sale in Columbia

Jun 8, 2011 at 7:26 am
You know you wanna eat me.
You know you wanna eat me.
Sparky's Homemade Ice Cream in Columbia, Missouri, sold out of its first batch of cicada ice cream last week before it officially went on sale. Alas, the first batch was also last.

This week the city's health department advised the ice cream retailer to hold off on a second batch of the dessert that included cicadas covered in brown sugar and chocolate. Like much of Missouri, Columbia is swarming with the arrival of the 13-year cicada.

And while Sparky's did boil the bugs before adding them to the ice cream, health officials say the city's food code has no information on how to safely prepare insects for consumption. Sparky's now has a sign on the door informing customers to come back for the cicada ice cream again -- in 2024.