Gothamist

A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.

Gothamist

WNYC Listen Live

Donate

 

 

Food

When Can We Feast On Cicadas?

By

Jen Carlson

Published May 17, 2013

Modified May 17, 2013

Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Never miss a story

 Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .

By

Jen Carlson

Published May 17, 2013

Modified May 17, 2013

Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

It has been nearly two weeks since our last cicada article, and we're starting to wonder: Where are the cicadas? Seriously, we were promised "Billions Of Cicadas" so WHY DON'T WE SEE ANY? We're hungry for cicadas, universe, please send them immediately...

Two days ago we were supposed to sit down to a nice staff dinner filled with dishes made of cicada, paired with some nice cicada cocktails. A week prior, Gothamist reporter Chris Robbins ventured around the city to find cicadas in the wild, as well as in Chinatown (where they sometimes have dried cicadas). Robbins was to pick up 2 lbs, and deliver the goods to our cicada dinner chef... but he came up empty handed. We put contributor Marc Yearsley to the task of doing one final sweep, but he reported back with bad news: there's a cicada famine in NYC right now:

"Google searches, variously, for 'cicadas, cicadas for sale, where to buy cicadas online, cicadas on sale, I WANT CICADAS' came up empty. eBay, craigslist, and Amazon searches... nothing. Someone is offering to BUY cicadas from California on the NJ Craigslist. My thinking is: NO ONE has cicadas yet. Scientists are saying that while it may have started, we haven't seen nothing yet, and once they come, we'll know it. Anyone who is saying they have cicadas now has to be fucking lying."

So for now, we are gathering information, and preparing even more... because we will be sitting down to a nice goddamn family dinner to feast upon cicadas if it's the last thing we do.

We contacted Gene Rurka, chairman of the exotics committee of the Explorers Club, and he prepped us on what we (and you, if you are also planning a cicada dinner) need to know:

And we want fresh molting cicadas... so Louis N. Sorkin, Entomologist and Arachnologist at the American Museum of Natural History, pointed us to a map that will show us where "emergences of Brood II are occurring," and what areas are currently in the midst of a “thick” emergence. So our search WILL continue...

Tagged

cicada

cicada dinner

cicadas

original

Jen Carlson

Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Read more

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

MORE food

10 dishes that demonstrate the delicious diversity of curry in New York City

The global dish is shapeshifting and ubiquitous.

By

Robert Sietsema

Published Sep 12, 2026

Frozen yogurt is back in New York City. So are the super long lines.

Is it worth the high price and ridiculous wait? Gothamist needed to find out.

By

Sonia Rao

Food

Frozen yogurt is back in New York City. So are the super long lines.

Is it worth the high price and ridiculous wait? Gothamist needed to find out.

By

Sonia Rao

5 NYC banana puddings as good as Magnolia's

By

Hannah Frishberg

Where to eat in Greenpoint, Brooklyn right now, from Polish to Sichuan to Iberian

By

Robert Sietsema

Can a congressional candidate's dumpling diplomacy win over Queens’ immigrant communities?

By

Caroline Shin

Never miss a story

Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.

Sign upEmail address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .