[imagesource: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster]

If it’s not the locusts, it’s the cicadas.

Every 17 years, swarms of cicadas emerge to partake in a breeding frenzy, with large areas of the eastern and midwest US currently under siege.

Brood X, as this batch is known, is burrowing up from the foot or so underground where they have spent 17 years. They mate, and then die, and the newly hatched offspring burrows into the ground until the next swarm.

You can find out more about the how and why of it all here.

Even POTUS isn’t immune from a cicada assault, and on Wednesday, Joe Biden took one to the neck.

Somehow, this is considered newsworthy:

President Biden gets the cicada treatment on the way to Europe pic.twitter.com/ywthb2hIJy

— The Recount (@therecount) June 9, 2021

Riveting.

In a segment earlier this week, Trevor Noah took a closer look at Brood X, as well as Biden’s neck-swatting:

That crash mentioned above saw 20-year-old Vincent Bingham smash his car into a pole in Cincinnati.

Bodycam footage from police features him describing how that went down:

Spare a thought for cicada-phobes, currently living through six weeks of hell and coping via homemade armour and escape plans.

I kid you not.

All of the above is really just a precursor to the main event, and a great Friday tune by Jon Secada:

Incidentally, this was the inspiration for Seth’s book cover, which you can snap up online:

[source:mashable]