Cicadas, mealworms and crickets will be served at the Dutch Embassy after a discussion after insects as snacks later this month.

It’s probably time to invest in earplugs, because any day now, the air will be filled with the incessant screeches of cicadas.

Get some earplugs. The cicadas will be back in a few weeks, with a brood that emerges once every 17 years set to rise from the ground and let out its horrible song.

Does the insect kingdom support D.C. budget autonomy? Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who last month sank a budget autonomy bill, was pestered on the Senate floor today by a big fly.

Bed bug sightings are on the rise again in the District, with a growing number of infestations reported in single-family homes.

The bees of Rock Creek Park are officially out to get us. At around 3:15 p.m., D.C. Fire/EMS responded to a call of multiple bee stings in the area near the horse stables inside the park, at 5000 Glover Rd. NW. Spokesperson Pete Piringer says that seven children and one adult suffered multiple stings, but none of them appeared to be in serious condition and no one needed to be taken to the hospital….

The Rock Creek Park Nature Center is apparently under a full on assault from nature. D.C. Fire/EMS now report that they’ve responded to a second yellow jacket attack (the fire department is still referring to them as bees, but the National Park Service seems to think they are indeed yellow jackets). Department spokesperson Pete Piringer puts the initial count of victims this time at 14 children being evaluated for stings at around 3:30 p.m….

D.C. Fire/EMS crews were dispatched at around noon to the 5000 block of Glover Road NW in Rock Creek Park, for a report of multiple bee stings. According to Fire/EMS spokesperson Pete Piringer, a tour group going through the park came across a bee hive, the bees became agitated somehow, and a total of eight people, both adults and children, were stung multiple times. Two children were taken to Children’s Hospital, while six others were…

WJLA reports that a ‘bug bomb’ — those aerosol cans of pesticides that you set off in the middle of a room to battle bad insect infestations — caused a small explosion in an apartment in a four-story building at 1907 Good Hope Road SE this morning. Yikes! One minor injury was reported. The state of New York actually recently banned such insect foggers due to health and safety issues associated with the products….

Photo by James Jordan Sunday’s heavenly sunshine and cool breezes may have helped push last week’s endless thunderstorms into the backs of our minds, but WTOP’s Kristi King reminds us that this spring’s increased rainfall will have lasting effects in form of incessant mosquitoes. King quotes Mosquito Control Program Manager for the Maryland Department of Agriculture Mike Cantwell as noting that the D.C. metro area is in store for increased mosquito activity this season…