Cicadas are Bugging out Parts of the Country, Forcing Some Business Owners to Close Shop Trillions of cicadas are emerging in the U.S. after a 17 year hiatus. Grow Your Business, Not Your Inbox
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In Washington D.C., Michelin-star restaurant
Little Pearl in Capitol Hill says it’s temporarily closing because of cicadas, according to the Washington Post. Rose’s Restaurant Group owner and chef Aaron Silverman says around 80% of the restaurant s seating is outdoors in a heavily vegetative area. We have decided to pause service at Little Pearl for 4 weeks starting May 10th in preparation for cicada season … As we tried to get as creative as possible to combat them this year, we know in good faith that a single 100 decibel cicada will ruin anyone’s dinner experience, a ‘tsunami’ of them will be impossible to control.”
Matt Simon
Brood X offers something beyond noise and wonder. Namely, it offers a source of free-range, no-cost, eco-friendly proteinâone so good that Bun Lai is already out foraging. A New Haven, Connecticutâbased chef renowned for pioneering sustainable sushi, Lai is currently in Washington, DC, where the cicadas have already begun to hatch, collecting as many as he can find. When heâs done, heâll host a cicada-based popup dinner in the woods with his bounty. Lai plans to serve the cicadas in a paella, on a pizza, and as a sushi ingredient. Heâs going to make some using indigenous preparation methods, too. âCicadas taste a bit like nuts, as many insects do, but with every bite, my nose is reminded of popcorn, too,â he says.
It is a remarkable 17-year-life cycle for the hordes of bugs, who form different broods that emerge at different times and who remain underground for almost their entire lives before briefly emerging to mate and then die.
Brood X – or the Great Eastern Brood – is the group of cicadas that spread over tracts of the north-east of the US, including New York and Washington, as well as parts of the midwest and West Virginia.
Their emergence is a bonanza for predators, including copperhead snakes, who are also eagerly awaiting Brood X’s return to the surface. Birds, squirrels, bats, wasps, mantises, spiders and robber flies are also set to feast on the swarm.