The cicadas are coming! Looming ‘Brood X’ swarm forces posh DC wine bar to close

Little Pearl wine bar warns ‘tsunami’ of cicadas will not make for a pleasant dining experience

Concerns about cicadas have caused a Washington, DC wine bar to close for a month (REUTERS)

A posh wine bar in the nation’s capital is set to shutter for weeks as residents of Washington DC hunker down ahead of a particularly forceful swarm of cicadas.

Other restaurants in the area are keeping their doors open but, Little Pearl has announced they intend to close and avoid the insect interactions.

“We have decided to pause service at Little Pearl for 4 weeks starting May 10th in preparation for ‘Cicada Season’,” the restaurant said in an email, according to The Washington Post.

The restaurant informed their existing booking holders to rearrange with their other establishment Rose’s Luxury, an acclaimed restaurant. The owner of the restaurants, Aaron Silverman, spoke about the disruption to the Washingtonian.

“As we tried to get as creative as possible to combat them this year, we know in good faith that a single 100-decibel cicada will ruin anyone’s dinner experience, a ‘tsunami’ of them will be impossible to control,” he said in a statement.

This particular swarm of cicadas is known as Brood X, and the large insects only come about every 13 to 17 years. The bugs are due to make their presence known in cities up and down the East Coast, includes New York.