If You Live On The East Coast Of America,

anywhere form North Carolina to Connecticut, to be precise,

this could be good or bad news, shortly there be a free, plentiful source of loud food available, when I say bad news they can sing 120 dB, to put that in perspective, 130 dB is considered painful for the human ear, also on the bad news side there will be literally millions of them hatching as they complete their 17 year cycle,

the good news is that they are delicious, think of them as land living prawns and you will not be far wrong, there are a few recipes here from the University of Maryland Cicadamaniacs,

and here’s what you should know about foraging and eating this extremely rare and delicious food,

1) First off, don’t pick up or eat dead cicadas. Gathering live ones shouldn’t be very hard, especially if you pick them up “early in the morning when the dew is still on the ground and the cicadas are still drowsy,” says one expert. The easiest way to kill them is by placing them in the freezer.

2) Gather twice as many as you and your family think you can eat. Van Smith, who wrote about his experiments eating cicadas for Baltimore City Paper, explains why:  “Females are preferable for their protein-filled abdomens, while males offer little substance. When hunting them, though, I found it nearly impossible to tell the difference–until cooking, when the males’ bodies shrivel up. Marinating live bugs in Worcestershire sauce also helps weed out guys (the vinegar in the sauce slow-cooks them, so they start to collapse) while tenderising the ladies.”

3) Think of them like “land shellfish.” Like shrimp, lobster and crabs, cicadas are anthropods. Gaye L. Williams, an entomologist from the Maryland Department of Agriculture told the Baltimore Sun: “They’re in the same animal group as shrimp and crabs, and people don’t think twice about that.” (If you’re allergic to shellfish, exercise caution when experimenting with cicadas).

4) Like many things, cicadas taste best fried. Here’s a simple recipe that only requires living cicadas, flour, eggs, salt, pepper, and oil. If they’re newly hatched, you can fry them as-is, but after they’ve been alive for several hours (or few days), their wings and legs might need to be removed, as this recipe for deep dried cicadas calls for, 

but remember, miss them this year and you will have to wait 17 years to try them again, just think all that food for free!

of course if you find you do like them you can always pop over here to Thailand,

 where farm raised ones are on most bug carts.