Cicadas are everywhere right now, both in much of nature and in the news. Recently, I saw an article with this headline:

Cicadas Fall Prey to a Psychedelic-Producing Fungus That Makes Their Butts Fall Off

Well, that’s horrifying. It seems the fungus replaces the insects genitals, and then causes them to try and mate even more than they already do, which leads to the fungus spreading. It also causes the bugs to be full of psilocybin, also found in psychedelic mushrooms.

Although some people eat healthy cicadas, experts do not recommend eating the cicadas for the fungus and its drug

First, do experts not recommend eating them, or do they recommend not eating them? There are an infinite number of things experts do not recommend, but it’s the things they recommend not doing that we should pay attention to. And second, are people really going to eat fungus-infected bugs to try and get high? Ah, that’s probably a stupid question. Of course they are.