Shrimp of the dirt

[MichaelB]

April 2021 is Brood X month. Also known as the 17 year locust, their time has come once again. It is ready for adulthood, and we’ll hear, perhaps see, definitely host, billions of them. It'll be a short visit, so get ready. Crawl out of the ground, eat, mate, lay eggs, and then die, all in the short space of about 4 weeks. Here’s an article with more detail https://earthsky.org/earth/17-year-cicadas-broodx-2021

A big event in the insect world is approaching. Starting sometime in April or May, depending on latitude, one of the largest broods of 17-year cicadas will emerge from underground in a dozen states, from New York west to Illinois and south into northern Georgia. This group is known as Brood X, as in the Roman numeral for 10.

For about four weeks, wooded and suburban areas will ring with cicadas’ whistling and buzzing mating calls. After mating, each female will lay hundreds of eggs in pencil-sized tree branches.

Advocates of alternative diets and adventurous eaters will have lots of opportunity. There are hundreds of websites with recipes and serving ideas. Here’s one from the gourmet magazine Bon Appétit https://www.bonappetit.com/uncatego...cook-cicadas-according-to-3-richmond-va-chefs

Another great civilization loves cicadas, too: ours. From West Virginia, where that cookbook touted the pleasures to be had from this "shrimp of the dirt," to Maryland, where in this cookbook cicadas get the star treatment normally reserved for blue crab, and on down South, the East Coast has lavished attention on this ultimate seasonal delicacy, whose season comes but once every 17 years or so.

 

[Walt34]

I just checked and DW insists that she has absolutely no interest in cicada recipes.

 

[CardsFan]

I was once offered fried cicadas in China. I declined.

 

[W2R]

April 2021 is Brood X month. Also known as the 17 year locust, their time has come once again. It is ready for adulthood, and we’ll hear, perhaps see, definitely host, billions of them. It'll be a short visit, so get ready. Crawl out of the ground, eat, mate, lay eggs, and then die, all in the short space of about 4 weeks. [...]

A big event in the insect world is approaching. Starting sometime in April or May, depending on latitude, one of the largest broods of 17-year cicadas will emerge from underground in a dozen states, from New York west to Illinois and south into northern Georgia. This group is known as Brood X, as in the Roman numeral for 10.

(Bolded emphasis mine). Oh good! We won't see them in New Orleans, then. Whew.

When I was in 8th grade back around 1961, we had a semester of sculpture as an elective in junior high. I chose to sculpt an 18" long giant cicada in clay, using a photo to guide me since I had never seen one of these fascinating bugs. Ever since then I have had a feeling of deep kinship towards cicadas. Doesn't mean I want to live anywhere when they swarm, though!

 

[MuirWannabe]

Cicada tacos. Yum. Especially good with a nice slaw and a sprinkle of garlic

 

[jollystomper]

We saw very few in our area in 2004. On the other hand, a nephew graduated from law school in DC in 2004, and around the campus we heard lots of cicada noise and saw piles of dead cicadas and cicada shells under many trees.

 

[Bestwifeever]

The first cicada out of the ground: “what’s with all the face masks?”

 

[braumeister]

I well remember their last emergence; it was incredibly noisy around here, but the birds thought they had died and gone to heaven.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

(Bolded emphasis mine). Oh good! We won't see them in New Orleans, then. Whew.

Here's a link to a brood map:

https://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/docs/CicadaBroodStaticMap.pdf

The lines can be pretty distinct. Last year's brood made a huge racket at my DB's house 15 miles from me (even less as the crow flies) but I neither heard nor saw a single one.

And wait, someone had to ASK DW if she was interested in cicada recipes??

 

[braumeister]

I was once offered fried cicadas in China. I declined.

Never tried them but I ate deep fried scorpions in China, and they were good. The heat neutralizes the venom so they were safe to eat.

 

[Amethyst]

I remember that too, now! We had lots of trees, lots of birds, lots of noise.

We won't get cicadas on the coast. I don't think they like the sand.

I well remember their last emergence; it was incredibly noisy around here, but the birds thought they had died and gone to heaven.

 

[38Chevy454]

They are certainly noisy. Just a nuisance for people though. I am not looking forward to the time period when they are out.

 

[steelyman]

Here's a link to a brood map:

https://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/docs/CicadaBroodStaticMap.pdf

The lines can be pretty distinct. Last year's brood made a huge racket at my DB's house 15 miles from me (even less as the crow flies) but I neither heard nor saw a single one.

And wait, someone had to ASK DW if she was interested in cicada recipes?? [emoji23]

Thanks for the map, it’s interesting. It’s not clear whether we (smack dab in the middle of North Carolina) will be affected and how much. Guess we’ll find out!

I’ve experienced them only twice before in New Jersey and Illinois.

[ADDED] It appears the map dates from 2013. I wonder what a more recent one would show.

 

[mn54]

Never tried them but I ate deep fried scorpions in China, and they were good. The heat neutralizes the venom so they were safe to eat.

did they have a little bite to them?

 

[ransil]

I am on the edge of 3 different Broods primary on was 2019 don't remember much action, the 2016 was worse still have damaged tree branches.

 

[braumeister]

did they have a little bite to them?

Crunchy and salty.

 

[Montecfo]

We seemed to have them every year when I was growing up in Texas. Not quite as prominent here in Northern Va but not at all uncommon.

 

[Chuckanut]

Cicadas are not like shrimp to me. They are like raw oysters.

I experienced them once. No need to experience them again.

 

[braumeister]

Brood X started to emerge here a few days ago, and the older parts of my neighborhood (with really big trees) are absolutely littered with them. Corpses all over the sidewalks, busy cicadas climbing up those trees, and the fattest, happiest robins you've ever seen!

 

[Time2]

I'm in the Fl panhandle, while sitting at my computer I had one fly by my head, (I ducked) and it landed on a power cord I have for a light above my chair. I plucked it up and took it outside. This was about 2 weeks ago, I have not seen or heard anymore.

 

[Midpack]

I was near Chicago the last time Brood X was around. Messy and noisy but it doesn’t last that long. Fortunately we’ve moved and won’t be affected this cycle. I was also in TX as a kid when they arrived, so I’ve experienced cicadas twice that I recall.

 

[Koolau]

I was near Chicago the last time Brood X was around. Messy and noisy but it doesn’t last that long. Fortunately we’ve moved and won’t be affected this cycle. I was also in TX as a kid when they arrived, so I’ve experienced cicadas twice that I recall.

I recall 2 or 3 cycles in my 60 years in the midwest. LOUD!

Thankfully, we don't seem to have anything synonymous here - especially the 17 year emergence. Maybe Coqui frogs which I guess were accidentally introduced locally just a few decades back. They are VERY loud - 90 dB!. They're probably impossible to irradiate, but they can be controlled to an extent with careful and expensive techniques. One thing for certain, you know where they are. YMMV

 

[braumeister]

I'm in the Fl panhandle, while sitting at my computer I had one fly by my head, (I ducked) and it landed on a power cord I have for a light above my chair. I plucked it up and took it outside. This was about 2 weeks ago, I have not seen or heard anymore.

I doubt it was what you thought it was.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22362042/cicada-brood-x-map-2021

 

[eytonxav]

We get these in Texas that help keep down the Cicada populations. I hate it though when the start to bore into your yard.
https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef004

 

[Time2]

I doubt it was what you thought it was.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/22362042/cicada-brood-x-map-2021

Yes, it possibly wasn't the 17 year cicada. It sure looked like it from the pictures I looked up at the time. But was some type of cicada none the less.
cicadas of Florida - Tibicen spp., Diceroprocta spp, Cicadetta spp., Neocicada hieroglyphica (Say)


Although the pictures on this page don't look like what I saw. The one I saw had the red eyes and darker body, not green. Clear, but brownish tinted wings.
I shoulda kept it for inspection!


Or maybe it was the 17 year, and it hitched a ride to the beach from the East Coast.