Bad news: those fat cicada bugs love landing on humans and this is why

Remember when a bug landed on President Joe Biden and everybody lost their minds?

Well it looks like even people without presidential gravitas should prepare to face a similar fate, because cicadas love landing on humans.

Speaking to Mashable, Eric Day, an entomologist and cicada expert at Virginia Tech explained that trees provide a great place for cicadas to hang out, mate, and lay eggs - and humans look a bit like trees.

He said: “Cicadas land on people because they strongly resemble trees.

“It’s rare to see a cicada on the ground.

“Insects that utilise trees are strongly attracted to upright dark silhouettes and a human standing on an open area is close enough.

“So cicadas and wood-boring beetles will go right towards any dark upright object.”

That’s why if you’re standing on a flat runway, like President Biden, a cicada may be keen to find you. “You might be the tallest structure out there.”

Right. Maybe tall people need to be the most worried.

His comments, which may cause humans to do literally everything they can to look as little like a tree as possible, come amid the surge of Brood X cicadas. After 17 years spent underground, 1.5 million cicadas have emerged in places in America including the Midwest, the Southeast and the mid-Atlantic.

Cicadas are harmless, but no-one wants bugs in their hair. So, humans of the US, stop looking like a tree! Now.