this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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Wasn't it just a year or two ago there was supposed to be another "mega batch"?
I feel like with less wildlife to eat them, all the broods are getting bigger.
They evolved for a shit ton of wildlife to eat them before they can reproduce, and we just don't have enough wildlife anymore.
So everytime they come up, more make it back down.
At a certain point, it's going to end up killing a bunch of trees if enough cicadas make it back underground. Especially since they'll be down there drinking tree roots for over a decade.
This has nothing to do with population size, this is two broods emerging simultaneously, something that happens every couple hundred years. It's in thr article
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/28/us/cicada-brood-x.html
Literally every couple years, we get the "super brood" and it's always treated as "once in a lifetime".
But they're already becoming more varied.
https://weather.com/science/nature/news/cicadas-brood-x-early-emergence-climate-change
Because some always pop out. If there's not enough predators, they reproduce and start another brood. Over time it gets it's own cycle.
But even on the boom years (which happen like every 5 years now) more are surviving
It won't take long for there to be an insane amount of cicadas every year.
Without as much wildlife to eat them, they will over produce and destroy trees that normally would have survived.
This is a serious thing and by the time we even realize it, it'll be too late. Because they eat the roots from underground for years. B
Or you could just eat cicadas at every meal
You're streets behind...
https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/buckeyebites-cooking-with-cicadas
Hillbillies have eaten them for generations.
I had them as a kid once, fried up like wild mushrooms they weren't bad. I forget what they called them to get kids to eat them, but the realization was better than when I found out "turkey fries" were deep fried turkey testicles, and not as bad when "extra dark meat chicken" was disclosed as rabbit/squirrel
I just can't over eating them with all their organs and poo still inside them.
No different than shrimp
I mean, even though shrimp are arthropods like insects, with shrimp you typically remove the head, legs, and digestive tract before eating them. The tail's usually the only thing left.
Yeah, I should have said crawdads/crawfish.
But they're basically the same.
Most people take the claws off, because there's just no meat there and lots of shell. But they'll leave the legs, head, everything else.
Some people try to get the meat out with a fork, some people pop the whole thing in their mouth and spit the shell out. Some even eat the entire thing, the shell is really could for joint issues btw.
There's a lot of variation, but people eating cicadas have likely tried other weird food already. It's not like in a couple months everyone is gonna be eating them.
Last time they came around I decided to give it a shot. Best way was just pan fried with butter. Crunchy, slightly nutty flavor. Not bad at all and lots of free food.
Yes, and this year will be more.