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Cicadas Are Coming, and So Are the Cicada Salad Recipes

Twice the cicada buzz is due in 2024, and some people are already seeing signs of the winged critters. Here come the recipes.

Hungry? Hungry enough to eat a cicada salad? The Audubon Insectarium in New Orleans is prepping for «cicada-geddon» by testing out some buggy recipes. The Associated Press reports that the museum is trying out cicada recipes, including a green salad with apple, almonds and blueberry vinaigrette, with fried cicada nymphs scattered on top.

Recipes or not, the noisy cicadas are about to hit many parts of the US, and some people are already reporting seeing the loud winged insects. Early visitors are already here. One Reddit user in Missouri shared a photo of cicada nymphs beginning to dig their way out from underground from beneath a plastic pool. And in Chicago, residents are organizing a citywide, summer-long art project called Cicada Parade-a, featuring cicada sculptures.

Cicadas have a weird life cycle. They grow underground, but we humans mostly pay attention to them when they emerge into our above-ground world. And this year is a doozy for the buzzy little guys — in an Associated Press story, University of Connecticut cicada expert John Cooley called it «cicada-geddon.»

There are annual cicadas, which emerge from their underground life every year at various times. Then there are periodical cicadas, which emerge only every 13 or 17 years. Those groupings are called broods and are numbered. Because of their trackable schedule, these broods of periodical cicadas tend to steal all the headlines from their annual cicada comrades.

This summer, it’s a double-brood year. That’s rare. According to ScienceAlert, the last time it happened was in 1803. One brood on a 13-year cycle — called Brood XIX — and another on a 17-year cycle — called Brood XIII — are expected to pop out of the ground in 2024.

Here’s what to know before they take over your neighborhood between May and June, including how to protect your hearing from all that cicada noise — and whether climate change could be responsible for be disrupting the cicada cycle.

What’s expected in 2024

Brood XIX

Brood XIX, also called the Great Southern Brood, is the biggest brood of 13-year periodical cicadas, if you go by geographical distribution. It was last seen in 2011 in the Southeast US. Most periodical cicadas are on a 17-year cycle, but Brood XIX is on a 13-year cycle. The two other surviving 13-year broods are expected to return in 2027 and 2028.

This brood is expected to re-emerge in mid-May and stay around through late June. The cicadas tunnel to the surface, mate, lay their eggs and then die off. Look (and listen) for them in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Brood XIII

Brood XIII is known as the Northern Illinois Brood. Illinois seems to appeal to cicadas more than any other state. Experts at the University of Connecticut say that the Land of Lincoln «contains both 13- and 17-year life cycles, all seven currently recognized species, and five separate broods, some of which include disjunct populations.» Talk about the Big Noise from Illinois.

This is one of the 17-year cicada broods. It was last seen in 2007 and should be back from mid-May to late June, just like Brood XIX. They are expected to appear in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin and possibly Michigan.

The basics about cicadas

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, cicadas are about 1 to 1.5 inches long, with a wingspan twice that length. They have black bodies, red-brown eyes and membranous wings with orange veins. The noise that makes them famous is the loud courting sound of the adult males.

The name of the species is pronounced differently in the US, where most people say «suh-KEI-duh,» than it is in the UK, where people tend to say, «suh-KAA-dah.»

What to do about the cicadas

Live and let live — they’re temporary and harmless. Cicadas may be noisy, but they don’t bite or sting. And unlike termites, they won’t chew their way into your house, though they could enter through open doors and windows as other insects can. In fact, pest-control experts say that pesticides don’t work on cicadas.

«It’s a waste of (pesticide), and it’s a danger to the environment just to spray down because you’re afraid of the cicadas,» one expert told CNET in 2021.

How can you manage the cicada noise?

The main problem with the cicadas is obvious: their constant buzzing noise. They’re around only for about six weeks, however, so experts have some ideas for how to keep the sound from driving you buggy.

These aren’t cicada-specific remedies, but they work. You might try noise-canceling headphones, white-noise machines or simple earplugs. You can also try some DIY soundproofing, such as weather-stripping foam tape.

Climate change and cicadas

Climate change brings rising global temperatures, and the cicadas aren’t working with a calendar, they’re reacting to temperatures. So it’s unsurprising that scientists believe climate change affects the cicadas as well.

Chris Simon, a professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, has studied and researched cicadas for years.

«Warmer winters and earlier springs will cause cicadas to come out earlier,» Simon told CNET. «Warming climates also increase the growing season in a given area so that cicadas may be ready to emerge from the ground years earlier — generally four years earlier — turning 17-year cicada populations into temporary 13-year cicadas. If this happens repeatedly, we hypothesize that 17-year cicadas could become permanent 13-year cicadas.»

But that change wouldn’t reduce the number of cicadas, Simon told CNET, just adjust their schedule. And it shouldn’t affect the food chain, because «the animals that eat them above ground would see them more often, and the animals that eat them underground would still do so,» Simon said.

While it’s possible that climate change could force the cicadas to move farther north, that won’t be an immediate change. Simon notes that periodical cicadas can move only as adults, and that can happen only for about for weeks every 13 or 17 years. While periodical cicadas can fly, they tend not to move much or migrate long distances. Human-made asphalt and cement obstacles could also prevent the cicadas from taking off to the great white north.

How you can help cicada researchers

Want to help scientists learn more about periodical cicadas?

«Citizen scientists are critical for filling in the parts of the distribution that we do not have time to visit or unknown parts of the distribution that we can later verify,» Simon told CNET.

To help you can download Cicada Safari for iOS or Android, a free app developed by Simon’s colleague Gene Kritsky. The app asks people to take a cicada photo using their phone, with geolocation allowed. 

«(Kritsky’s) team will verify photos and log the data and share it with us,» Simon said.

How to protect new, small trees from cicadas

While cicadas shouldn’t hurt large, mature trees, new young trees may be vulnerable. Female cicadas like to lay their eggs on trees where new leaves are located, puncturing the branches and possibly causing leaves to wither, turn brown and even snap. So if you live in a cicada territory, hold off on planting any new trees until they’re gone, which should be in late June.

If you have new small trees and are worried about cicada damage, you may want to loosely wrap their trunks and the areas where twigs meet the branches. You can use cheesecloth, foil tape, barrier tape or sticky tape. You could also use landscaping nets around smaller trees. CNET has a guide to tree protection against cicadas.

People eat cicadas?

The New Orleans museum isn’t alone. You can actually eat cicadas. Don’t even try it, though, if you have seafood allergies, because cicadas are related to shrimp and lobster.

If you’re made of tough stuff and don’t get easily queased-out by unusual foods, there are plenty of simple cicada recipes on the web. An expert from Johns Hopkins University says they’re «quite tasty» but admits «the yuck factor» might keep most of us from even trying.

The good news, though, is that if your dog wolfs a few down — and dog owners know some pups will eat literally anything — cicadas shouldn’t harm them. Just watch that they don’t choke from eating too many at once.

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The Perseids Meteor Shower Brings Bright Fireballs to the Skies, Starting This Week

At its peak, you may see as many as 100 meteors per hour if you’re in a place where it’s dark enough.

Skygazers have a lot to look forward to over the next month. A couple of dueling meteor showers will grace the skies later in July, and they will be joined by perhaps the most popular meteor shower of the year. Perseids are known for their bright fireballs and plentiful meteors. The show starts on Thursday, July 17, and will run through Aug. 23. 

The reason the Perseids meteor shower is so popular is twofold. First, it takes place in the summer, so going outside and watching it is less uncomfortable than other large meteor showers like Quadrantids, which takes place in wintery January. 

The other reason is that it’s one of the most active meteor showers of the year. During its peak, the meteor shower is known to spit as many as 100 meteors on average, according to the American Meteor Society. These not only include your typical shooting stars, but also a higher chance for fireballs, which are meteors that explode as they enter orbit. Per NASA, fireballs tend to last longer than standard shooting stars and can come in a variety of different colors. 

Perseids come to Earth courtesy of the 109P/Swift-Tuttle comet. Earth’s orbit around the sun brings it through Swift-Tuttle’s tail every year. The comet itself takes 133 years to orbit the sun. Its last perihelion — the point at which it’s the closest to the sun — was in 1992. It won’t be back until the year 2125. Until then, it leaves behind an excellent tail of dust and debris to feed us yearly meteor showers. 

How to watch the Perseids meteor shower

The best time to view the Perseids is during its peak, which occurs on the evenings of Aug. 12 and 13. During this time, the shower will produce anywhere from 25 to 100 meteors per hour on average. However, since the shower officially lasts for over a month, you have a chance to see a shooting star on any given evening, provided that you’re far enough away from light pollution.

Thus, if you’re planning on watching this year’s Perseids during their peak, you’ll want to get out of the city and suburbs as far as possible. According to Bill Cooke, lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office, folks in the city might see one or two meteors from the meteor shower per hour, which is pocket change compared to what those outside city limits might see. 

Regardless, once you’ve arrived at wherever you want to watch the meteors, you’ll want to direct your attention to the radiant, or the point at which the meteors will appear to originate. Like all meteors, Perseids are named after the constellation from which they appear. In this case, it’s Perseus.

Per Stellarium’s free sky map, Perseus will rise from the northeastern horizon across the continental US on the evenings of Aug. 12 and 13. It’ll then rise into the eastern sky, where it’ll remain until after sunrise. So, in short, point yourself due east and you should be OK. Binoculars may help, but we recommend against telescopes since they’ll restrict your view of the sky to a very small portion, which may hinder your meteor-sighting efforts. 

The American Meteor Society also notes that the moon may give viewers some difficulty. Perseids’ peak occurs just three days after August’s full moon, so the moon will still be mostly full. Thus, it is highly probable that light pollution from the moon may reduce the number of visible meteors by a hefty margin, depending on how things go.

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I Watched a $30,000, 116-Inch TV. Now I Need a Bigger Living Room

I spent a couple of hours with the Hisense 116UX TV, which has an RGB mini-LED backlight and a superfast 165Hz panel. Also, it’s big.

The whole TV industry is moving towards bigger and bigger screens, and the new Hisense 116UX takes the concept to a room-filling extreme. This is a 116-inch 4K TV that costs as much as a decent new car. But it’s not just any 116-inch, $30,000 TV. Hisense built some sophisticated tech under the hood, and I got some hands-on time with it. 

I can confirm that this is a truly massive screen. Like, absolutely huge. A real unit. To give you an idea of how big it is, I’m 6 feet tall and I could not touch one end and the other at the same time. I can also confirm that I kinda want one. 

Read more: Best TVs of 2025

Unique tech, meet gigantic TV

First announced at CES, this Hisense 116UX is a different type of TV than the $20,000, 115-inch TCL we looked at last year. That was a «hang out with your buddies and watch the game» kind of TV. This Hisense is not just an inch larger diagonally and 10 grand more expensive, it’s squarely aimed at the (very) well-heeled video quality aficionado.

The LCD-based Hisense 116UX uses the company’s proprietary RGB, mini-LED backlight combined with quantum dots and 3,584 local dimming zones. As the name «RGB» suggests, each individual backlight is broken up into a trio of red, green and blue mini-LEDs. Representatives for the company said these zones can also be divided further through software, and that at full pelt the screen is capable of 8,000 nits peak brightness.

The TV is set for gaming on with a native 165Hz Panel and support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Auto Low Latency Mode.

Though it lacks the level of anti-glare tech found on high-end Samsungs like the S95F I reviewed recently, Hisense’s TV has the company’s own Anti-Reflection Pro to ward off (though not completely obscure) reflected light.

Like most TVs from companies not called LG or Samsung, the 116UX runs on the Google TV operating system. If you have a Google smart home or Android phone it should integrate really well as a result. 

And similar to recent Samsung remotes, 116UX comes with a suitably large remote control with a little photoelectric panel for charging with your overhead lights. Maybe it also charges from reflected light of the huge panel? It’s certainly bright enough.

The TV was the room

I spent a couple of hours with the Hisense 116UX, in Hisense’s New York demo room, which was only just big enough to fit the TV. I was reminded of Magritte’s painting of a massive apple in a small room. I watched some movie scenes, including scenes from Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse and Oppenheimer.

Apart from the size, I came away with the impression that this TV is great for HDR movies, as exemplified by its surprisingly deft handling of Oppenheimer. In the test scene I used, the Hisense was able to both bring out bright pinpricks of light while also able to show the hills and sky without banding.

Spider-Man showed how bright and colorful this TV could get. The huge screen was also able to keep up with the movie’s frenetic action scenes without smearing. 

I tested its light output using a Konica Minolta LS-100 light meter, which registered an impressive 7,923 nits — pretty much exactly what Hinsense claimed. It’s also double the 65-inch Hisense U8Q, the brightest TV I’ve ever measured at CNET, and roughly four times brighter than the 65-inch LG G5, the brightest OLED TV.

While I didn’t test the TV’s gaming prowess, I have no doubt it would be a real blast to rid Mars of a new demonic scourge on a screen that truly is larger than life.  

I listened to the 116UX for a little bit but it sounded disappointedly «like a TV,» with boomy lower mids and a vocal forwardness. If you can afford a TV like this, you can afford a sound system to go with it, and I will (maybe) come with you to help you buy it.

A big price tag to match

Is this the holy grail of TVs? For some, perhaps. Would I have one in my home? Yes, but only if I could find a rich benefactor to buy it for me — along with a bigger apartment. For its $30,000 price tag you could buy a hell of a lot of a lot of movie tickets instead. Like around 2,000 of them. But that’s hardly the point. This is currently the best (and only) 116-inch TV available, and if you really want to make your living room seem small, the Hisense 116UX is more practical and fun than a monster-sized piece of fruit.

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Preorder Pages for Donkey Kong Bananza Just Went Live at Best Buy

This highly anticipated Switch 2 exclusive hits shelves on July 17, and you can order the physical or digital edition for $70 right now.

He’s the leader of the bunch, you know him well and he’s (finally) back to kick some tail. Over 10 years since the release of the last game, we’re finally due to get a new title in the iconic Donkey Kong franchise. Donkey Kong Bananza is set to hit shelves on Thursday this week (July 17), and the Best Buy preorder page just went live. If you’re serious about playing this highly anticipated title on release day, now’s your chance to order your copy.

Donkey Kong Bananza is exclusively playable on the new Nintendo Switch 2, so you’re out of luck if you haven’t upgraded from the original console. The tech retailer has both the physical game and the digital edition available for $70, along with a Donkey Kong and Pauline Amiibo that you can preorder for $30.

The game itself is a 3D platformer that promises fun and chaotic «smash-everything gameplay» as you hunt for treasures across a massive, multitiered world. It’s primarily single-player, but there is a local co-op mode where a second player rides on Kong’s back and launches projectiles made of solid words.

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Why this matters

One of two Switch 2 exclusives announced alongside the console, Donkey Kong Bananza promises chaotic fun in a massive and vibrant 3D world. The digital edition won’t sell out, but if you’re hoping to grab a physical copy, we’d definitely recommend getting your order in soon. There’s a fair chance it will sell out quickly after release day.

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