The red-eyed, shrimp-sized, flying insects don’t bite or sting. But they are known for mating calls that produce a din that can overpower ringing telephones, lawn mowers and power tools.
Brood XIII is expected across northern Illinois, and in parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. Cicadas live only about 30 days as adults, and their main goal is mating.
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The last massive emergence of periodical cicadas was in 2004, when Brood X emerged after 17 years underground in parts of 15 Eastern states. Some broods emerge after 13 years.
As nymphs burrowing underground, cicadas suck sap from tree roots. Almost all members of a group, or brood, burst from the ground within a couple days of each other.
They quickly climb the nearest vertical surface to molt and unroll their wings. In some heavily wooded areas, as many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre will crowd onto trees, expert say.
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A single male’s shrill courtship call can reach 90 decibels, equivalent to a kitchen blender. That could sour plans for outdoor events over the next few weeks.
Ravinia Festival, a 103-year-old music festival held north of Chicago, revised its schedule to avoid classical musicians having to compete with the insects, said festival president and CEO Welz Kauffman.
June will see more pop bands outdoors, a few concerts moved indoors and a visit from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. “With 350 voices on stage, they can hold their own against the bugs,” Kauffman said.
The band experienced the cicada madness in southern Ohio and Indiana while on tour in 2004. We were traveling in a shitty van with no exhaust to speak of while blasting a boom box to drown out the sound of the van (there was no stereo). As we drove into Cincinnati, the cicadas overpowered all of that. Once we got in to town, i called my then-gf on the phone while she was at work and pointed the phone at a tree. The noise is incredible to behold. Plus, cicadas look like Kickback, the black Insecticon who transformed into a grasshopper. So there's that.
Perhaps i'll feel differently if they emerge in Milwaukee for some reason and keep me up at night, but as far as i'm concerned, cicadas are awesome. Not crap.
I don't think i'll be trying to eat any, though.
Freelance writer David Hammond runs the LTHForum, a Chicago-based Internet site devoted to culinary matters, and his “foodie” friends want to see what the cicadas taste like.
The insects are eaten in other parts of the world, with descriptions of the taste ranging from shrimp to canned asparagus to not much at all.
No recipe has been decided upon yet, but Hammond assumes they will be fried and perhaps accompanied by a dip or salsa.
Fuuuuuuck that.