A Washington, D.C., reporter provided some comic relief after a rogue cicada assailed him during a live shot Wednesday.
Evan Lambert of Fox 5 DC was reporting on the announcement that hospitals in Washington will soon require employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
He swiftly ducked as a cicada zoomed toward his head, barely skipping a beat and finishing his sentence without ado.
But apparently it gave him more of a fright than he let on on air.
“Can you retire at 32? Asking for a friend,” he joked on Twitter alongside a clip of the moment. “And not the one who so rudely gave me a heart attack on live TV. Cicada anxiety is real ya’ll!”
Anchor Shirin Rajaee commended his “great cicada dodge” when he handed back over to her. “I was very impressed,” she added.
“I’m still dying over your live shot!! I could feel your anxiety from the anchor desk,” Rajaee added in Lambert’s Twitter replies.
Lambert is just the latest victim in a string of high-profile cicada incidents since billions of the bugs came out of the ground as part of their 17-year cyclical emergence.
On Tuesday, the White House press plane was grounded after a swarm of the raucous insects flew into the engine. President Joe Biden himself had to swipe away one of the bugs as he boarded Air Force One on Wednesday. And two weeks ago, CNN’s Manu Raju flipped out as a cicada crawled onto his neck as he prepped for a live shot.