It’s the Plague of Flies all over again.
Thousands of creepy crawlers are bedeviling the Nevada desert where the annual Burning Man festival is set to be held later this month — and no one knows why.
“They’re everywhere,” the festival’s blog confirmed, in clear language, on Tuesday. “They bite. They crawl all over you. They get up and in you.”
Burning Man — a weeklong getaway that attracts the Silicon Valley elite, where art, nature and community converge — doesn’t officially start until the end of the month, but is already buzzing on social media thanks to the critters.
Organizers are befuddled by the pest invasion, given the area’s blistering hot and dry climate. The bugs have infiltrated tents, carpets, art installations — nowhere and no one is safe.
“It’s not a localized occurrence, it’s everywhere,” John Curley, an organizer, blogged.
Fesitval coordinators have come up with two theories for the mass arrival of insects.
One possibility is that recent rain has caused the bugs who normally lie dormant to wake up and join the party. Another theory is that the bugs “hitchhiked” to the festival site on a load of wood and then multiplied.
(“Or maybe, as Shade postulated out at Man Base, there’s a Johnny Bugseed making the rounds at night, sprinkling them anywhere and everywhere,” the blog reported.)
Curley said an unlucky bystander had already been the target of a winged troublemakers. The woman later confirmed the bug was “quite bitter to the taste.”
As the tormentors continue to settle in, organizers hope Mother Nature will be enough to push them out — “otherwise we’re gonna have to nuke the city,” said organizer “Cobra Commander.”
The festival begins Aug. 30 and runs through Sept. 7. It has been running every summer since 1986.
