'Tastes Like Asparagus:' KDKA Reporter John Shumway Eats Live Cicada On Air

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It's the video that hundreds of thousands have already seen.

During KDKA's 5 p.m. newscast Monday, reporter John Shumway did something that had people going "ewwwwwwww!"

He ate a live cicada on the air.

"Cicadas are considered a delicacy in a lot of cultures, some places they make tacos out of them, others they put them on salads, and in some places they just eat them raw," Shumway said before shoving the cicada in his mouth. "I still think they taste like asparagus."

Now let's be clear, it's not the first time that he has done this during his time at KDKA, but it's the first time that his antics really went viral on social media.

The video has now been viewed more than 100-thousand times on social media, and reaction is mixed.

The red beady glowing-eyed cicadas began swarming out of the ground over the weekend.

"Oh my word, the bugs are everywhere. I'm having a hard time handling this," said Laura Cherock as she took her daily walk.

"They were crunching under our feet. That's when my wife said, I want to turn back. I don't even want to walk anymore," Glenn Himes said.

The cicadas come out of the ground, climb the nearest tree, shed their shell, dry their wings and go looking for a mate.

Once the mating is complete, the female digs grooves in a tree limb, lays her eggs, and she and the male go off to die. The babies will emerge from the eggs in a few weeks drop to the ground and burrow in for the next 17 years.

In some cultures, they are considered a delicacy and are used in a wide variety of recipes or eaten raw.

With the soil temperatures now running in the 60s, the cicadas will continue to pop out in pockets and be around western Pennsylvania until early to mid-July.