Swarmageddon: America braces for cicada plague of Biblical proportions
America's East Coast is bracing for a cacophonous summer as hordes of flying insects emerge for the once-in-a-generation phenomenon popularly known as "Swarmageddon".
Cicadas will first climb the nearest tree and shed their skins, covering the ground in a crunchy carpet of detritus Photo: REUTERS
By Philip Sherwell, New York
6:14PM BST 19 May 2013
After 17 years underground growing from larva to bug, billions of cicadas are set to revel in the final four climactic weeks of their unusual life cycle.
At some point over the next few weeks, when the temperature at eight feet below ground reaches a steady 64F, the nymphs, as juvenile cicadas are called, will scramble backwards out of the ground.
They will first climb the nearest tree and shed their skins, covering the ground in a crunchy carpet of detritus. Freed of this external layer, the cicadas then inflate their orange-veined wings with fluid and embark on their short-lived adult life in pursuit of a mate.
Males flex their tymbals, drum-like organs in their abdomens, by rapidly tensing their muscles. The clicking sound is intensified by their mostly hollow abdomen. Female cicadas answer by snapping their wings. The suitors deliver three different songs and the targets of their attention offer three responses.
The ear-splitting chorus can reach 90 decibels - a noise level comparable to a pneumatic drill.
After the acoustic blast, mating occurs and the females lay their eggs on tree trunks, branches and twigs. The parents soon expire and their eggs hatch later in the year. The young cicadas fall to the ground and burrow down until they find roots on which to feed in their new subterranean lair, not be to seen - or heard from - for another 17 years.
Cicadas have already emerged in warmer southern states, while a few outliers have been spotted as far north as Connecticut.
But the great - and for some gross - encounter between man and insect in America's most populous region, the north-east corridor that runs from Washington through Philadelphia and New York to Boston, is expected to begin by the end of this month or early June.
It is their synchronous emergence and deafening buzz that makes the experience so intense. When they do finally emerge, they cover trees, shrubbery, house facades, even car tires. They are benign if intrusive creatures - they do not sting, bite or harm crops.
Even so, for entomophobes, or those scared of insects, this will be seen as a plague of Biblical proportions. Some veterans of previous invasions are already planning to flee to the beach or take refuge amid the concrete of the big cities, both of which are cicada-unfriendly terrain.
But for entomologists such as John Cooley, their arrival is eagerly-awaited after 17 years of anticipation.
"The periodical cicadas are friendly insects and fun to watch," said Mr Cooley a biology researcher at the University of Connecticut who tracks their emergence at his magicicada.org site.
"The people who say that it's gross are probably the same people who are quite happy to catch the subway in Manhattan in close proximity to a million-plus cockroaches. Give me cicadas any day."
There are also annual life-cycle cicadas across the world, but the densities of the magicicada (periodical cicadas) - up to 1.5 million per acre - are much higher than other species.
Other broods emerge on different geographic 17-year cycles in the eastern US, including the one the last swamped Washington in 2004. In a memorable moment captured by press photographers, President George W Bush was pursued up the steps to Air Force One by a cicada as he set off on a trip from the nation's capital in May that year.
The imminent Swarmageddon is prompting a rash of how-to-cope coverage. Advice ranges from investing in noise-reducing earphones to not mowing the lawn during the day, as cicadas can mistake the sound of garden equipment and other power tools for mating calls.
Some are also extolling the nutritional value of cicadas (think of them as the "shrimpts of the earth", say aficionados). They are high in protein, low in fat, and low in carbohydrates and, thanks to their tree root diet, said to have an asparagus-like flavour when eaten raw or boiled.
Jenna Jadin, an entomologist who wrote the online cookbook Cicada-Licious while a graduate student at the University of Maryland, collectedrecipes that included soft-shelled cicadas, cicada dumplings, cicada stir-fry and sizzling cicadas.
"Eating bugs sounds disgusting?" she wrote. "If you have ever eaten a crawfish, lobster, crab, or shrimp, then you have already eaten members of the class arthropoda, of which insects are a part. So popping a big juicy beetle, cricket, or cicada into your mouth is only a step away.
"Many people all over the world eat insects and other arthropods both as a delicacy and staple. This is sensible because insects are nutritious. Insects provide as much protein pound per pound as lean beef."
Mr Cooley will, not however, be tucking into a juicy cicada this summer. For one thing, he noted, there is some troubling data suggesting that the insects may accumulate mercury from industrial waste during their 17 years underground and "I don't want to be running around like the Mad Hatter".
But also, he said, "as scientists, we tend to fall in love with the subject of our research. For me, that's the cicada."
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