Dave Haxton, a regular visitor to The Green Man blog, lives at Hammerstead Farm, lost somewhere in the American bush (that's rural countryside to the non-Australians out there). It looks like a peaceful, idyllic lifestyle generally speaking but it is about to get a shake up. It is likely to be the site of a frenzied few weeks of feasting, sex, and general partying till you drop, literally. Although, to be fair, Dave's farm has not been singled out. It will be happening across most of America as billions of cicadas emerge in mid-May this year.

Michael Schauff of the Agricultural Research Service's Systematic Entomology Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland says that this years emergence of "17-year" cicadas will be the largest emergence of the species ever. They are called 17 year cicadas because they emerge from the ground once every (now how many years was it again) Oh that's right 17.

Although generally regarded as harmless they are guaranteed to make a lot of noise, clog up radiators of cars and make an all round pest of themselves as they pursue their glutonous and lust filled endeavours.

Michael reliably informs us that those of you who are not too particular about your sources of protein may like to experiment with consuming them. Whilst being high in protein they don't have a very "meaty" taste. Michael thinks

"They are quite soft and take on the flavour of whatever you cook them in. They are not quite like a piece of meat, more like a small white potato that's been cooked"

Apparently it is best to get them when they have just hatched before their exoskeleton becomes too hard. They may even be appropriate for some vegetarians who, like the rest of us, consume insects and insect parts everyday, al beit, inadvertently. It just depends on how far down the animal kingdom their vegetarianism extends.

Read more in New Scientist.