17 year cicada invasion

Oh wow!

They must eat stuff -- do they denude crops and such?

I actually kind of like cicadas, but not in those numbers... eek!

Seems, from your link, that it's not so bad:



Not so great either though...!

A few years ago the east coast cicadas were supposed to reach a seventeen year peak.

Thanks to freeze&thaw winters and urban creep and suburban sprawl the infestation was not spectacular.

They say it's a natural pruning process for mature trees. They kill pencil sized branches, but do less damage to larger ones. We planted a young oak tree last fall. I've wrapped it in netting. We'll prune out dead wood from the larger stuff in the fall. Bushes are also at risk but I'm not going to wrap all my bushes. We'd planned on planting new lilacs this spring, but will hold off 'til next year.

The numbers are still low from what was projected. The north side of one of my larger (older) oak trees is covered this morning and I saw my first female. Still no singing.

I love Cicadas! I love their freakish larval shells, I love their amazing wings and big faced heads........ I even love their song. But, even I could be annoyed with billions of them singing at once!

The mating calls of the annual cicadas are a true indicator of summer. I had a thread about it last year. I can only imagine the noise level that we're in for. The article said that heavily infested areas could have 100,000 bugs per acre. We're on one acre lots with about 200 houses in the vicinity --- thatsalottabugs!

Last night on the news I heard the dead bodies smell something horrible.

On the positive side - catch some and ship them overseas to earn extra money - they are supposed to be very good to eat - healthy to eat and are a delicacy in some countries.

Yeah, I'm sure some of the local restaurants will get creative with their menus. I seem to recall they did the same thing last time.

On the odor -- I don't remember it being bad, but I'm in a much more heavily wooded area now than I was then.

One of my co-workers passed out cicada recipes.

Let me know how they work out for you, JW -- samples not necessary.

This is a very cool video of the cicada cycle

video

So far 934 cicadas have been spotted ...



Seems, they were waiting for me ... to get photographed: only one around where I'll stay :wink:

HAH! I've got at least that many in my front yard.

Zooming with my special google earth edition in JPB's front yard ...





:wink:

That looks more like the back patio, Walter. Doesn't matter, there are at least 934 more in the back yard.

Nasty looking buggers, aren't they?

Well, ... yes. (I don't think that I support getting them from our national "red list of animals" :wink: )

The 'music' has begun. It started yesterday -- it's not too loud yet, you can still hear the birds over the constant drone in the background.

This morning I looked at the front yard and noticed that the grass seemed to be blowing, as if there was a breeze from the east. Walking closer, I noticed it was the cicadas marching along the grass toward a large oak tree that was causing the grass to bend westward.

The east side of the tree trunks are covered in shells and the collection on the ground at the base of the tree is now a couple inches deep.

JPB - take photos!

yeah, I should figure out a way to do that. Unfortunately, I'm equally inept on either side of the camera.