Bacon-flavoured bugs go down a treat with theme park's half-term visitors

In scenes reminiscent of the infamous Bushtucker trials in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, visitors to Chessington World of Adventures road-tested a range of creepy crawly nibbles that could form part of a new insect pick-n-mix at the Surrey theme park.

The ethically-sourced delicacies are earmarked for a new area of the park called Wild Asia, due to open next month, and children and adults were almost unanimous in their approval of the bite-size bugs.

Many drawn by the dare factor, crowds flocked to taste the samples. Mike Carney, from Surrey, who tried the cheese and bacon-flavoured crickets, said: "They're nice – crispy. Salt and vinegar – just like crisps."

Will Constantin, six, also from Surrey, was so busy eating cheesy grubs that he could only nod his grinning approval.

Craig Dunkerley, head of operations at Chessington, said: "It's a bit family fun and something to see and do. It's obviously creating a lot of excitement and a lot of fun and the feedback is good so far."