Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Cicadas useful after death CINCINNATI, June 10 (UPI) -- An expert says those hundreds of thousands of dead cicadas dropping from trees across the United States will make good fertilizer. Advertisement "Rake them up in the yard and use a mulching mower, or sweep them into a garden," said cicada authority Gene Kritsky, a College of Mount St. Joseph biology professor in Cincinnati. "They're really high in nitrogen and potassium, two ingredients you find in any good fertilizer. It's a waste of good fertilizer to bag them up and throw them away." Ancient by insect standards, the 17-year-old Brood X cicadas are reaching the end of the road. "After they've mated and laid their eggs, that's pretty much it for them. There will be a very rapid die-off in the middle of next week," Kritsky told the Dayton Daily News. Advertisement Kritsky said cicadas' egg-laying increases fruit yields and when they burrow out, they aerate the soil. For their grand finale, they add nitrogen to the soil when they die. Pet gator doesn't fit in Philly PHILADELPHIA, June 10 (UPI) -- Philadelphia police were stunned to see a 3.5 foot alligator sitting on the lap of its owner as she rode in a car down a city street. The unlikely family pet was confiscated this week when authorities saw him with his head sticking out the car window, enjoying the winds of the open road, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. There's a law against wild animals in the city limits, so Petey, was taken away from his owner, Danya Johnson, 29, and lodged with the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Association. Johnson was also ticketed for possessing the illegal pet. Johnson "was very distraught when the alligator was taken away from her," said Police Inspector William Colarulo, who told the Inquirer he believed she had raised the alligator from its infancy. During their early years, alligators grow at a rate of about a foot per year. Males reach about 12 feet long and weigh about 550 pounds. Alligators live about 55 years. Advertisement 700,000 bees on a roof a sweet nuisance LAKE WORTH, Fla., June 10 (UPI) -- Florida beekeepers this week began removing an estimated 700,000 honeybees from a Lake Worth, Fla., home, though the homeowner didn't mind them as housemates. Norm Gitzen had put up with the bees for about a year, and even used their honey to sweeten his coffee. But when the bees started slipping into the home and stinging its occupants, it was time to evict them. Gitzen told the Palm Beach Post the bee swarm was great to watch. "It's kind of mesmerizing," he said. Yet if the bees were allowed to stay, the honey could attract rodents and ants, and the roof could even collapse under the weight of the hives, the head of the Palm Beach Beekeeper Association said. Beekeepers filled four buckets of honey weighing close to 65 pounds Tuesday. British fisherman reels in monster lobster CORNWALL, England, June 10 (UPI) -- A British fisherman thought he had a big catch, but he never expected to reel in a lobster more than 3 feet long. Garry Matthews, 59, told The Sun he had been struggling to land what he thought to be a huge fish in Falmouth estuary in Cornwall. Advertisement "I felt something tugging at the bait and battled with what I thought was a large ray," he said. "This was the last thing I expected to pull up." The lobster is now at Blue Reef aquarium in Newquay, where staff have named it Hook. Curator Matt Slater estimated Hook is about 60 years old. "I've never seen a lobster this big caught on a rod and line," Slater said.
