Every 17 years, cicadas emerge from the ground in droves, flying into windshields and occasionally ‘mistaking’ people for trees in their quest for reproductive partners. Conservative estimates have around 30 billion cicadas overtaking the Eastern United States this summer, while others place the number at closer to one trillion.
For a taste of what’s to come, see this video of the 2006 cicada invasion in Park Ridge, IL.
Luckily for everyone in Canada, Brood II — the appropriately apocalyptic name for the batch of cicadas that will awake, hungry and sex-crazed, this summer — will travel no further north than Connecticut. New York-based radio show and podcast Radiolab has even created this nifty cicada tracker which will allow us to watch as the Eastern seaboard is swallowed up by a plague of locusts.
Unluckily for us, that many bugs coming back to life at once gives them untold power. Is this the year the cicadas realize what lies within their grasp? That they use their sheer numbers and grossness to take over the United States and, by extension, the world? Beware the telltale thrum of billions upon billions of cicada wings, for who knows if it foretells of insectoid sex or a plot to overpower the human race?
Sure, they ‘accidentally’ stick their probosces into our arms. OR ARE THEY TESTING THE LIMITS OF OUR RESISTANCE?! If that’s the case, we’ve already failed.
To prepare for the coming cicada apocalypse, familiarize yourself with their form and life-cycle. This time-lapse video of one emerging from its own body is a must-see. Watch now, prevent your world from becoming an insect-ridden hellscape later!
CNN’s Erin McPike aptly describes the cicada’s brief tenure above-ground as “a giant sex and death party” in this confusing but, ultimately, illuminating cable news clip.
via:io9 image: Wikimedia Commons
