Ohio woman with 'cicada-phobia' creates cicada-proof shield out of shower liners: video

An Ohio woman who says she has "cicada-phobia" after first encountering the bugs 34 years ago has constructed a shield from shower liners to protect against Brood X periodical cicadas now emerging from hibernation across the eastern United States.

Speaking to Storyful, Jane Pyron said she developed her fear when she was visiting her now-husband, Lindsey Pyron, in Cincinnati in 1987. That year, another brood of cicada was emerging after a 17-year hibernation, and Pyron said she was "freaked out and horrified" by the bugs, especially when one flew in her car window.

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In a video shot by her husband, Pyron explains how she built the shield using a $5 umbrella, two transparent shower liners, and a stapler, before modeling her protective contraption on a sidewalk.

Pyron said she and Lindsey dated for one year back in the late 1980s, but reconnected three years ago after finding each other on Facebook. They eventually married and Pyron moved to Ohio, but planned to escape to Arizona for six weeks as soon as the cicadas returned. Work got in the way of those plans, Pyron said, but she looked forward to the next emergence. "We will be retired and we can go anywhere in the world that they don't exist!" she said.