Swarms of cicadas emerging in Midwest

Where to see the cicadas
An Illinois company that provides ice sculptures has turned down several outdoor parties over the next month. That’s because of what happened when Nadeau Ice Sculptures owner Jim Nadeau delivered a swan statue to a wedding in 1990, during the area’s last emergence of the periodical cicadas.

“We put our tray down and immediately the cicadas came off the ground and attacked the ice. Literally, it was a moving sculpture, this big black ugly mass of cicadas constantly moving,” said Nadeau.

“I don’t want to talk myself out of work, but that was just too gross,” he said.

Exactly when the cicadas will emerge is a subject of debate, although there is agreement they emerge once the soil temperature is consistently 64 to 65 degrees for several days. Biologists and insect experts predict the cicadas will emerge between Tuesday and June 1.

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP Tom Tiddens, an arborist at the Chicago Botanic Garden, stands next to a small tree covered with tulle May 14, 2007. Tiddens recommends covering small or young trees with netting to protect them from damage caused by egg-laying cicadas.

The best place to see — and hear — the cicadas will be forest preserves, golf courses and any land where there are older trees where the soil has been undisturbed since 1990.

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.

“Honestly, they’ll probably go down easier that way,” he said. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll love it. We may have to travel around the country as infestations occur.”

MORE FROM SCIENCE

Science Section Front

Visualizing politics Understanding the power of music   Scientists get inside a walking fish’s head Clouds have a metal, not silver, lining Oldest full-body insect fossil discovered Web surfing can boost your brain Cosmic Log: Life on Earth's final frontier ‘Hippie’ apes have a dark side, too Army developing ‘synthetic telepathy’ Zeitgeist: Bigfoot sighting in Russia? Science Section Front   Add Science headlines to your news reader: