On a recent field trip to Butterfly Wonderland students at the Fountain Hills Charter School got to taste an unusual snack in American culture, bugs.

As part of their lesson on entomophagy, the technical term for eating bugs, FHCS students sample snacks like dark chocolate crickets, sriracha cricket chips, spicy bugitos and BBQ lavets.

While not all the students tried the snacks, the ones who did were surprised by their reactions.

“Some of them were good and some of them were bad,” said Avery Berg. “There was a chocolate-covered cricket that tasted just like Kit-Kats but at the end you could taste all the bug parts in your mouth.”

Some of the students enjoyed the bugs so much that they went out of their way to get more.

“There was a vending machine at the place and I got this ant lollipop which was basically a blueberry flavored lollipop with ants inside it,” Gabe Silva-Bello said. “It was really delicious. When I was done with it I smashed it to get some of the ants inside and they were good.”

All of the students expressed that they were initially surprised when their teacher told them they would be trying bugs but entomophagy is not as uncommon in the rest of the world as it is in the U.S.

“Places like Mexico and China eat bugs,” Berg said. “Because it is better for the environment.”

The students learned that insects are not only nutritious but also a sustainable source of protein when compared to other foods.

For example, it only takes one gallon of water to grow a pound of crickets compared to the 2,000 gallons of water it takes to produce a pound of beef.

While the students might not be ready to make a full transition to a bug diet, don’t be surprised to see a Charter School student munching on some crickets.

“I would eat a whole plate of chocolate-covered crickets right now,” Alannah Hale exclaimed.