A kind of buggy delicacy. Photo: Screenshot of The Beijing News/miaopai.com

An insect culture festival at a university of Southwest China attracted a lot of brave students who came not to only get over their fear of creepy crawlers but to taste them.

The Insect Society of Sichuan Agricultural University in Chengdu, Sichuan Province sponsored the insect culture festival, providing different buggy delicacies including cockroaches, wasps and grasshoppers, according to a video of The Beijing News on Tuesday.

The society set up long tables featuring tasty treats that included a chocolate cake that was topped with worms and a pastry roll with something that used to crawl sticking out of both ends. 

The festival organizers also laid out plates with broccoli and cherry tomatoes to accompany fried bugs with wings that were delicately eaten by students using toothpicks. 

 "At first it was scary to even look at the bugs but after a while I tried some and they were actually pretty tasty," one of the students told the Beijing News on Friday.

According to the Insect Society, insects not only contain proteins and fat, but other nutrients required by the human body.

"We hope this activity will show everyone that you can overcome the fear of insects and realize that eating them has great nutritional value," said Li Sijia, a member of the society, expressing a sentiment not shared by many online commentators. 

Few Chinese netizens seem ready to accept bugs as part of their diet. 

"They look disguising! It is not necessary to eat bugs to compensate for nutrition as we can supplement nutrition by eating normal foods," one netizen commented.