Summer’s loudest insect is coming. It could save us from a deadly crisis

Angus Dalton
November 4, 2026 — 7:45pm

It’s the most vulnerable and dangerous event in a cicada’s life.

After years underground, the insect’s thick body bursts backwards from its subterranean armour and the scrunched, fleshy, feeble wads on either side of its body begin pumping with hemolymph – yellow insect blood. Over hours, they inflate and harden into powerful wings.

These wings are critical to a cicada’s short life and the male’s hell-raising quest to find a mate. That’s why the creatures have evolved an adaption that minces bacteria alighting on their wings.

No chemical or antibiotic is required – it’s the structure of the wings themselves that kills microbes.

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Pt: Hello doc. I’ve come down with one hell of a wog… sneezing coughing aches and pains…

Doctor: Take 2 cicadas and if symptoms persist see me in the morning.