Gourmet grub! Cicadas have become the latest food trend with chefs posting recipes for bacon-wrapped, Cajun fried and praline pests - so, would YOU be brave enough to eat them?

They're swarming the US in their trillions and known for producing an annoying buzz. 

But one way Americans have been dealing with the 'apocalyptic' influx of cicadas is by eating them.

The little insects – which are brown at first but darken as they mature – are low in fat, high in protein and taste 'nutty', according to those who have been brave enough to try them.

Restaurants and home cooks alike are using the noisy insects in dishes such as stir fries and salads, wrapped in bacon or just pan fried in spices as a tasty snack. 

Bill Broadbent, president of edible insect company Entosense in Maine, said cicadas are 'high in protein' and comparable to beef in terms of nutritional value. 

'They contain healthy fats, are low in calories and carbohydrates, and are a good source of antioxidants,' Broadbent told MailOnline. 

'Insect protein is a real animal protein and includes all essential amino acids.' 

In New Orleans, Bug Appétit, a restaurant at the city's Audubon Insectarium, is preparing dishes like cicada salad and roasted cicadas.

Zack Lemann, the Insectarium's curator of animal collections, has legal clearance to serve wild-caught cicadas while he works on lining up sources for the bugs. 

'Every culture has things that they love to eat and, maybe, things that are taboo or things that people just sort of, wrinkle their nose and frown their brow at,' Lemann said. 

'And there's no reason to do that with insects when you look at the nutritional value, their quality on the plate, how they taste, the environmental benefits of harvesting insects instead of dealing with livestock.' 

El Rey in Philadelphia has also used cicadas, chopped for salsas and blended into potato soup to add a nutty flavor, while Bar Sótano in Chicago is also planning to add cicadas to the menu.

But it's not just professional chefs that have been using the bugs in their cooking.  

According to Smithsonian Magazine, a couple in South Carolina recently hosted a cicada dinner party with the bugs wrapped in bacon, fried in Cajun spices and even made into a praline. 

Jim Warner, former program director for food at nutrition at the Ohio State University Medical Center, said home cooks should collect cicadas from wooded areas away from homes.

'Steer clear of well-manicured yards due to the potential for lawn chemicals and other contaminants the cicadas may have absorbed,' he said in a blog post. 

'Watch them climb up a tree and begin to molt from their outer shell. 

'When they’re out of their shell, gently grab the soft bodies, blanch them in boiling water for one minute, then put them into a zip-lock bag and place them in the freezer before preparing them to cook.' 

Warner adds that the bugs have 'a nutty flavor' and a nice crunch when sautéed in olive oil with a few seasonings, but they also make a good stir fry. 

According to the US Food and Drug Administration, people who are allergic to shellfish should avoid eating cicadas because they have a family relation to shrimp and lobsters. 

However, Dr Wade Syers, a food safety specialist at Michigan State University, warned that foraging for cicada can come with potential health risks. 

'There are many different risks that are involved with it and one of the issues that we have is there’s not a lot of research into how big those risks are,' Dr Syers told the Times. 

'If you just think of the life cycle of insects and where they’re going to be spending their time, we don’t know if the ones … from the wild have been contaminated with bacteria.' 

Scientists divide the more than 3,000 cicada species into two groups – 'annual' and 'periodical', but its the emergence of this latter group that is currently leading to a 'cicada apocalypse'. 

Shortly after a periodical cicada hatches from its egg, it burrows into the ground, where it spends the first 13 or 17 years of its life, depending on the species. 

When it emerges from the ground, it lives only four to six more weeks – just long enough to mate, fertilize or lay eggs, and start the cycle all over again.

In the US this spring, the emergence of both the 13-year and 17-year varieties is coinciding for the first time since 1803. 

This means more than a trillion of the insects will swarm over 16 US states in May and June – creating a noisy buzz as the male tries to attract a female. 

Cicada experts say that the two North American variations of the species can produce an alarming call as loud as 105.9 decibels, or 'as loud as a lawn mower'. 

'The dual emergence is a one in two or three lifetime event,' said Dr Gene Kritsky, a professor, entomologist and cicada expert at Mount St. Joseph University. 

'This happens 12 times every 221 years, but this is the first time since 1803 that these broods will emerge together.' 

In the UK, there's only one native species of cicada – the New Forest cicada – and it's endangered and rarely sighted.