By CASSIDY DESTEFANO
Assistant News Editor
While the cyclical 17-year brood of cicadas has spared some areas from Virginia to Connecticut, it has left other parts of the coastline swimming with fragile brown exoskeletons.
“People make it sound like they’re swarming like locusts,” Monmouth County Park System employee Ann Sage of Shrewsbury said. “I figure I must be in the wrong geographical area every time they come out.”
The red-eyed, fully matured bugs of Brood II, the most commonly spotted cicadas of the summer thus far, have been emerging from the ground by the hundreds, creating a constant cacophonous chorus that can keep people up at night, Staten Island residents reported.
The Brood II babies burrowed into the ground in the year 1996, before the birth of many current high school underclassmen, a recent FOX News article said. They stay submerged until they are fully mature, and then rise to the surface to mate and foster a new generation.
A New York Times web story reported that while residents including Sage cannot recall a huge influx of cicadas, others are scared to retrieve their morning papers because of the immense number of bugs dotting the driveway.
Entomologist Isa Betancourt of Drexel University refers to the noisy insects as “the shrimp of the land” because of both their frequent appearances as well as their recent transition into the culinary world.
Gene Kritsky, a biologist and cicada expert said that cicadas provide “a good set of vitamins” to consumers. Kritsky added that chefs worldwide are incorporating cicada delicacies into their menus.
“Eating insects for food is common throughout the world and dates back thousands of years,” Kritsky told National Geographic.
While just the thought of coming into contact with cicadas makes some residents queasy, others are not bothered and even enthused about their presence. Josh Clark, a Huffington Post reporter, described the harmless nature of the bugs.
“You should probably stay inside if you don’t like bugs,” Clark said. “They don’t bite, sting, or carry disease. But they’re really terrible at navigation and they tend to bump into people. They’ll hit you in the face and bump your head.”
The cicadas will only be active above the ground for four to six weeks, FOX News reported. The new nymphs will then feed off of tree roots and await their turn to emerge in 2030.