For most of us, Halloween is a fun holiday full of spooky decorations, wacky music, and costume drama with your kids. Light-hearted Halloweens are a good time, but sometimes it can be fun to get into the creepiness of the season as well. If you’re searching for a way to amp up your Halloween, look no further than bugs.

Yeah, that’s right.

Instead of serving up cutesy ghost cookies at your Halloween party, put the “trick” back in “trick or treat” and have your guests try one of these insect snacks. Throw in some blindfolds, and it can even be a guessing game.

If you’re feeling especially devious, hand these out to trick-or-treaters. Just try not to scare the children with your maniacal laugh, okay?

1. Crickets

Have these noisy intruders been keeping you up at night? Well now you can finally exact revenge… in your kitchen.

For people around the world, crickets and grasshoppers are abundant, nutrition-packed food sources, and eating them is the norm. How bad could it be?

These crunchy bugs taste vaguely like shrimp and almonds. No matter how you cook them, all crickets should be frozen first. Then, you can bake, fry, and sauté to your heart’s content. For a sneakier approach, crickets can even be ground up and turned into cricket flour. If you’re feeling fancy, try out one of these cricket recipes.

2. Beetles

Like crickets, beetles are commonly eaten around the world, especially in heavily forested areas like the Amazon basin and certain regions of the African continent.

Although they don’t taste the same, beetles and crickets can be cooked in many similar ways. In addition to the cooking methods listed previously, you can also roast/salt these guys. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could even swap this buggy snack for your movie popcorn.

Beetles are actually a great source of protein… if you can get past the fact that you’re eating beetles.

3. Moths

During their pupal and larval stages, moths are rich in protein and iron—making them a prime insect to eat (if there is such as thing).

If the idea of eating moth larvae doesn’t tickle your fancy, you can eat winged, adult moths as well. You should probably remove the wings, but then the possibilities are endless! Stick them on vegetable kabobs, candy them, add them to hamburger patties… get as creative as you want.

Is your mouth watering yet?

4. Worms

And now for the coup de grâce.

Forget the spaghetti—go straight for the actual worms! These slimy creatures can be eaten raw, pan fried, or dry roasted. . The smell of roasting worms can be off-putting to some, so you may want to throw them on an outside grill.

Worms are said to taste like peanuts and can be salted or chocolate dipped to really bring out that nutty flavor. Yum. Who knows? Maybe you’ll like them enough to start raising your own mealworm colony.

Stranger things have happened!

Sources:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/whats-stopping-us-from-eating-insects/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/130514-edible-insects-entomophagy-science-food-bugs-beetles
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/five-ways-to-start-eating-insects-180957346/

http://mealwormcare.org/recipes-nutrition/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniella-martin/5-ways-to-cook-a-cricket_b_914543.html