Cicadas 2013: '17-Year Locusts' To Descend On D.C. This Spring

They're baaaack!

After 17 years, Brood II cicadas will descend on the D.C. area this year between April and June. According to magicicada.org, a project sponsored by the National Geographic Society, Brood II cicadas will begin to emerge when the soil temperature reaches 64 degrees.

The last time Magicicada rose along the Eastern Seaboard was 1996; at the time, the New York Times provided a handy recipe for "Tasty 17-Year Cicadas" ("Use boiled nymphs in much the same way you would use cooked shrimp.").

This year, WNYC's Cicada Tracker is crowdsoucing cicada sightings in the Northeast by asking followers to build homemade temperature sensors and send back observations.

Brood X cicadas noisily (choruses can reach more than 90 decibels) made their arrival known in Washington in 2004. Some Washingtonians made the best of it by throwing cicada parties: "[T]aking the theory that one should embrace what one fears (or at least that's what magazines like Cosmo tell me), I decided to greet the brood with open arms."

Earlier this month locusts swarmed Israel and Egypt, devastating crops around the region. Although periodical cicadas are often called "17-year locusts," locusts are actually a type of grasshopper.

(h/t CBSDC)