How and why we should all start eating cicadas

Swarms of giant flying insects are covering the east coast of the US, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. Some chefs believe we should seize this opportunity, writes Isabelle Gerretsen

Cicada ceviche, anyone? (Brooklyn Bugs)

Trillions of large, flying insects are swarming the east coast of the US at the moment. These are the Brood X cicadas, large red-eyed bugs that only emerge every 17 years. When they finally surface, it is an extraordinary phenomenon.

“There will be something like 100,000 insects per acre spread across an area four times the size of England,” according to Jeffrey Lockwood, an entomologist from the University of Wyoming.

“These periodical cicadas are extraordinary because they live underground for 17 years and then emerge en masse,” he says. They overwhelm their predators with their sheer numbers.