If your pet tries to catch and eat cicadas, it's safe, but don't let them eat too many as the bugs’ exoskeletons can be tough to digest when uncooked. People can eat cicadas, too (and have been ...

are gone by the time cicada killer wasps come out. Pretty much everything from birds to deer to chipmunks eat periodical cicadas, Kritsky said. "There's so many of them it's like a feeding frenzy ...

And after cicadas die and their bodies decay, nitrogen and other nutrients are added to the soil. Some people even eat cicadas, he said, noting that Native Americans have been known to eat them.