Cicadas Like 'Chicken Nuggets' To Pets

Humane Society Issues Health Warning

POSTED: 4:49 pm EDT April 27, 2004

HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- This spring's crop of 17-year cicadas
will seem like junk food to dogs and cats, and like junk
food, they can make pets sick, the Humane Society of the
United States warned Tuesday.

"Imagine a yard full of chicken nuggets. That's sort of
what it's going to be like," Randall Lockwood, a Humane
Society vice president and animal behaviorist, said Tuesday.

He said the insects are protein-rich but their
exoskeletons are indigestible, so eating too many can
cause vomiting or constipation.

Millions of the large, red-eyed insects are expected to
emerge from the ground across the eastern United States
within days or weeks for a once-every-17-years mating dance.

Experts say the nymphs will climb into trees, shed their
shells to reveal wings, and then go about their business,
including loud buzzing by males to attract mates.

The Washington-based Humane Society advises keeping pets
indoors, securing screens and holding tight to dog
leashes outdoors.

The 1½-inch-long bugs "combine all the stuff that
particularly dogs like to chase," Lockwood said. "They're
kind of flying pet toys, they are loud, slow-moving, often
low-flying."

For most pets, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience and
almost irresistible, he said.

"They're just so abundant that this is kind of the canine
equivalent of a bag of potato chips," he said.

The bugs have a nutty flavor, David George Gordon,
author of "The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook," told The Washington Post.

Lockwood said cicadas are meaty, and eating a few won't
hurt your pet. But too many can overload an animal's
digestive tract with chitin, the hard substance of which
insect shells are made. If a pet has more than two vomiting
episodes or appears to be in pain, a trip to the
veterinarian may needed, he said.

A little cicada chitin may be beneficial, according to
the makers of Skin-eze, a product marketed by South
Carolina-based AllergicPet.com to relieve skin itching
in dogs and cats. The small amount of cicada chitin in
Skin-eze "decreases nervous spasms," according to the company's Web
site.
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