Cicadageddon Is Officially Underway

By Nicholas Phillips Wed., May 25 2011 at 10:30 AM

flickr.com/photos/coturnix

Bzzzzzzzzz Run for your lives!!! Becuase there are cicadas.

WE GOTS CICADAS! While some kinds emerge every year to buzz out their 120-decibel love songs, the "periodical cicadas" emerge en masse every 13 years, and this year's gonna be off the chain, according to various news sources:

The Associated Press said yesterday we may be dealing with not millions, but billions of these things. (Daily RFT puts the figure closer to "bajillions").

Last night, Roche Madden over at Fox2Now - KTVI reported that cicadas have begun to "swarm" at least one house in Arnold, and that human citizens are swarming toward Home Depot, freaking out about it.

Well, not everyone's freaking out. Like the kid in this segment, who Madden says is "examining" the insects with a stick -- but who is actually murdering them with a stick.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ups the ante even further by adding two more little buggers we need to worry about this summer: ticks and mosquitoes! Global warming, writes Harry Jackson Jr., has made conditions perfect for them. But Jackson is refreshingly sensible about cicadas. They're "harmless," he says, not to mention good eatin': "The females are silent and deliciously full of fats and nutrients," while the males are "hollow and crunchy." OK...Jackson, too, has gone insane.

CICADAS!!!

Tags:

Associated Press, cicadageddon, cicadas, Fox2Now KTVI, Roche Madden, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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Mike N.

I feel sorry for the poor cicadas who attept to emerge only to find someone built a parking lot on top of them over the last 13 years...

Quedeliciouso

Haha, but in all fairness...Cicadas are delicious!! I've traveled all over the world and have eaten my fair shair of bugs, but cicadas are by far the best and most nutritious. They're going to die anyway after all and are a feast for the numerous animals that feed on them. Why can't humans be among them? See below a wonderful recipe for "Shanghai Cicadas" that makes them palatable and presentable to people not used to eating bugs and enjoy these delicious and nutritious insects:)

Shanghai Cicadas30 newly-emerged cicadas2 tbps anise seeds1 tsp salt2 cups sherry1tbsp soy saucesherry or rice wine10 cloves mashed garliccelery to garnishturnip greens to garnish1. Boil the cicadas and anise in salted sherry for five minutes, thenremove the cicadas.2. Saute the mashed garlic and soy sauce, adding enough of equal partswater and sherry to make a thick paste.3. Deep-fry the cicadas, then skewer them with bamboo picks. Arrangethem on a plate with the turnip greens, celery, and garlic paste to looklike cicadas climbing out of a mud pie into green foliage.