Cicada Mania: 12 Handy Uses, Besides Eating Them

According to various reports, there are going to be many billions or even a trillion red-eyed cicadas swarming any day now over the fruited plains and also skyscrapers of the East Coast --- from roughly North Carolina to Connecticut.

The next generation of the 1-inch critters, known as Brood II, will awaken from their 17-year gestation naps, crawl out of their underground cubby holes when the region's temperatures hit 64 degrees and fly around madly looking to mate before they all die in a few weeks, the process then re-starting for their own offspring, who won't see the light of day or night until 2030.

It's estimated that local human inhabitants will be outnumbered by cicadas at least 600-to-1.

There are already a plentiful number of reports circulating that suggest how to prepare cicadas for dinner ---- which is all fine and well, but what do you do with all the dead bugs once the novelty of consuming their crunchy exoskeletons or gooey insides has worn off?

How about fishing, or jewelry design or interior decorating? Those are just a few of the following 12 nifty ways to use cicadas without eating them:

1. Fish Bait. The cicadas are free, plentiful and freeze well.
2. Mulch. The hard shells can block weed growth and hold moisture. Then, when the bodies decay, you have instant fertilizer.
3. Replacements for missing Monopoly game board markers.
4. Earrings. The green little buggers would make a great addition for a do-it-yourself earring kit.
5. Arts and crafts projects: There's nothing that says "masterpiece" better than some hot glue, a bottle of glitter, paint and a bunch of dead cicadas.
6. Cat toys. No assembly or batteries required.
7. Counting tools, for helping the kids with basic math. For example, if you have four cicadas and you add another five, but then Fido runs by, knocks one on the floor, picks it up in his mouth, carries it to his blanket and bites the head off, how many cicadas are left?  
8. Ever hear of bean bags? Why not cicada bags?
9. Badminton, anyone? The next time you lose a birdie to the nearby pine tree, don't fret. Just reach into your pocket, whip out a trusty cicada, and resume the game.
10. Table centerpiece. Get some floral foam and branches and arrange them nicely. Then glue cicadas to plastic picks and stick them in. Guaranteed to add a whole new dimension to any meal.
11. Door wreath, same concept as the centerpiece.
12. Shoe ornaments. Take a hot glue gun and a handful of cicadas to an old pair of sandals or sneakers.