Xtreme BUGS at Brookfield Zoo

May 16, 2012 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- A 33-foot-long Japanese hornet in the western suburbs! That's pretty scary except for the fact that it's at Brookfield Zoo and is part of a new exhibit called Xtreme BUGS.

Supersized bugs are crawling around Brookfield Zoo. The Xtreme BUGS exhibit runs from May 19 to September. They're bigger than the bugs in your Jurassic Park nightmares.

"We're doing this because bugs are usually animals that people recoil from ... or even if you mention their name they go oooooewww. They tend to forget how tightly they're tied to our daily lives," Andre Copeland, Brookfield Zoo programs manager, said.

The show was created exclusively for Brookfield Zoo and this is the first time they've been on display. Twenty animatronics giant bugs and over a hundred stationary insects. And in a large tent we find "Harry's Big Adventure ... My Bug World". And this is where your bugs are for real. All sorts of creepy little things that crawl and make your skin crawl. There's even a Madagascar hissing cockroach race.

"Oh it's just a little trick and I've been training them for awhile... Actually you tap them on the butt and they go. Ha, ha, ha," Jerrod Coates, cockroach race announcer, said.

Don't eat before you come to Xtreme BUGS because there's plenty to chow down on here. Bug chef Zack Lemann stirred up a batch of goodies for us.

"I've got crispy Cajun crickets at least that's the name of the dish. These are house crickets," Zack Lemann, bug chef, said. "Yes people around the world eat bugs out of necessity and also because they taste good."

They taste good? Try them out for yourself at Brookfield Zoo -- through September 2012.

http://www.czs.org/CZS/Brookfield/Zoo-Home.aspx

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