Got Locus?

Nat Geo takes awesome pics!

The basil is growing beautifully which can only mean a swarm of locus is heading our way.

Strangely, this is cicada year!  Coincidence?  I think not.  Do they eat basil?  The cucumbers look really beautiful too.  Anybody would eat those.

A little research illuminated that my concern for the basil was misplaced.  Seems I should have had more concern for the 17-year cicada swarm!  Everybody from National Geographic to a professor in Ohio is recommending them as a crunchy treat, like popcorn but with more protein.  More like shrimp since you pull off the legs and wings.

The dishes don't sound half bad:  Banana Cicada Bread, Southern Cicada Tartlets or Sizzling Chili Cicadas.  Sound interesting?  Here is the free online cookbook to expand your culinary adventures.

But for all the hoopla made...
this locus swarm seems to be kinda hard to find.  Around my fifth grade year their nighttime exuberance was deafening.   They took their short time in the sun seriously.  An expert in bug linguistics translated their screams and found them singing, "Tonight we're going to party like it's 1999!" followed by a rousing rendition of "We Are The Champions" and then curiously: "Lolly, Lolly Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here ."  They sang in rounds at different tempos, keys and songs.  It all merged into a blaring bug cacophony. Had to close the windows to hear each other talk.

Pilgrims no dounbt relished this as the sound of food coming to them for a change.  No starvation in a year of screaming locus!

What seems more curious is that modern day, over-indulged, well-paid, immediate-gratification-needing Americans would eat them.  If I were a cicada I'd hide too.  Americans aren't known for their stealth and subtlety.  Have you seen those Hardees commercials?  If Americans are hungry, it's going to get ugly.  



Maybe this is the cure for the obesity epidemic.

Turns out my basil is safe.  This particular type of locus already ate before it crawled out of the ground for the party.