Cicadas are here and they are wreaking havoc

It’s all laughs and recipes, until someone – or something – gets hurt.

From grounding a plane full of reporters headed to the G7 summit, to causing a car crash by flying into a driver’s face, the bugs are proving to be a menace. They’re dive-bombing reporters, ruining many a golf game, and showing up on weather radar.

Some people are staying inside. Some, including the President, are dodging them and swatting at them as best they can. Others are continuing to do yard work, though the circular saws and lawnmowers might attract some female followers, Ohio entomologist Mike Wedding told ABC News.

Adult cicadas cover a plant, Monday, May 17, at Woodend Sanctuary and Mansion, in Chevy Chase, Md. (Carolyn Kaster/)

Much of the activity seems to be taking place in Ohio, where the breeding Brood X has invaded this year’s Memorial Tournament, reported Golf.com.

“The cicadas at Muirfield are EVERYWHERE, and they feel like they’re the size of small birds,” tweeted Golf.com reporter James Colgan earlier this month. “One jumped on my chest earlier. Objectively the most terrifying moment of my adult life.”

Just last week, a cicada flew into the face of a driver, causing him to swerve off the road and wreck his car, he told police. This was around the same time that a swarm of cicadas grounded a plane full of reporters who were going to cover the G7 summit with President Biden, delaying that flight for more than seven hours.

One even landed on the shoulder of CNN correspondent Manu Raju as he prepared to go on-air, prompting a quick expletive-laced flurry to get rid of it before the live shot.

“Can you retire at 32? Asking for a friend….” tweeted Evan Lambert of WTTG-TV. “And not the one who so rudely gave me a heart attack on live TV. Cicada anxiety is real ya’ll!”

Graphic footage, plus more contextual details, subsequently became apparent when he spoke about the incident on CNN’s “New Day,” describing how moments before the bug was seen crawling up his neck, another had apparently fallen out of his pocket.

While not having actual heart attacks, people are freaking out and calling 911 over the mating noise, mistaking it for other things, or simply wanting the unremitting cacophony to stop. In one Georgia county, authorities pleaded with residents to cease and desist.

The bugs are also making fuzzy clouds on the National Weather Service’s radar, as NBC News reported.

President Joe Biden, with a brood X cicada on his shirt collar, walks to board Air Force One upon departure, Wednesday, June 9, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon/)

People do often feel attacked when one of the critters flies into them. But in reality they are simply clumsy, Don Cipollini, a professor of biological sciences at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, told ABC News.

“People have the sense that when you walk down the street and one flies into you, they’re attacking you or something – they’re not,” Cipollini said. “They’re just awkward, clumsy fliers and they’ll just run into you by accident.”

They aren’t all bad, either. Cicadas are known to be quite tasty, when caught and cooked at just the right moment.

Just don’t catch them after they’ve died. That’s when they begin to decompose, causing a big stink, said Cipollini.

“In large piles, they will start to smell when they decompose,” Cipollini said. “That’s something that’s kind of annoying about them.”