Posted on 04/16/2016 6:51:56 AM PDT by DeathBeforeDishonor1
The eighth biblical plague that tortured Egypt was a plague of locusts.
As described in Exodus 10:5, “And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field.”
Flip the aforementioned “they” from locusts to cicadas, and that’s actually a pretty apt description of what residents in some parts of Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia will experience next month when the soil warms to 64 degrees and billions of cicadas rise from the ground to mate. Fortunately, cicadas can’t chew so they don’t devour our plants and trees. If they manage to avoid predators long enough they suck up plant sap but not enough to any real damage.
This particular group of insects has a 17-year-life cycle that begins underground and culminates in the air as they swell and swarm and scream and sing, issuing deafening cries as the males desperately seek mates. This current 17-year-cycle, which began in 1999, begins to end next month, reports Cicada Mania.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Right about the trout....cheap bait too!
Hussein’s parting gift — a plague of locusts.
And the democrats are ready to get them all registered and voted absentee ....
the “7 year locust” cicadas, have a very short life span, do not have mouths as such, but a opening with something that looks like a grate or a car grill, that keeps them from eating “mass quantities” and the die very soon after they hatch, and mate.
They are fearsome looking, sound like a miniature chainsaw, and leave husks of larvae shells on tires, trees, lumber, so they can fly and mate. They die leaving almost no trace they were ever hear.
In warm climates there are scattered hatchings almost every year.
17 Year Cicadas.
I remember back in the 50s in Virginia, my father told us to collect the emerging cicadas from the tree trunks before they could harden and fly away. So, we took pails half filled with ice and collected hundreds of them. The point was to cook them and eat them.
My father said they were good, but it took me a while to get the courage to eat my first one. We pulled the legs and wings off them steamed them like a seafood.
They actually did taste good, a lot like soft shell crabs, but with more of a shrimp flavor. We also dipped them in horseradish and ketchup seafood sauce.
I’m sure this is Bush or globull warmings fault, somehow.
Makes me think this is how Obama wakes up in the morning...minus the wings of course. Then again, there could be bug wings tucked away.
If you do an image search for “Cicadafest”, you’ll see pics of the big bugs used as a pizza topping. Growing up in south Louisiana, those critters were part of the annual Spring and Summer environment. Never really seemed like a lip-smacking treat to me (but the local population of blue jays ate them with gusto).
Trump and his swarm of Trumpkins.
I remember them in Washington DC in 1986. I was stationed at Bolling AFB, just got married (in May) and moved to an apartment near Camp Springs, Maryland, just south of DC.
Me and my bride would walk our dogs in the nearby woods and fields. The cicadas sounded like a pulsating alien spaceship landing. It was eerie!
The nymphs of the periodical cicadas nourish themselves while living underground by feeding on the juices of plant roots but they typically do no harm to them. Once they emerge and mate, the females lay their eggs in tree branches - the female cuts V-shaped slits in the bark of young twigs and lays approximately 20 eggs in each, for a total of 600 or more eggs. After about six to ten weeks, the eggs hatch and the newborn nymphs drop to the ground, where they burrow and begin another 13 or 17-year cycle. This can cause damage or kill off the weakest of tree branches, often called “flagging” but it may actually be beneficial to the tree as it acts as a natural pruning. They can in extreme cases kill off very young saplings or small ornamental trees but that is not typical.
http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/will-the-cicadas-kill-my-trees-shrubs-or-flowers/
See my post # 33. Also:
Q. Are they beneficial in any way?
A. Yes, there are a number of benefits. Their (nymphs) tunnels aerate the soil, they conduct a natural pruning of large trees, they provide food for many animals, including moles, mice, opossums, raccoons, bears, birds, snakes, lizards and fish, and upon death they provide a large dose of nitrogen for the soil.
http://naturalhistory.si.edu/highlight/cicadas/faq.htm
I know Camp Springs well - I went to high school there in the early ‘70s.
Thanks for the warning.
Yep. This year’s crop of 17 Year cicadas is Brood V.
http://www.cicadamania.com/cicadas/category/broods/brood-v/
The really big one is Brood X – “The Great Eastern Brood”. That Brood last emerged in 2004 (and living in Maryland, I remember it very well and also as a child living in Central PA in 1970) and isn’t due to emerge again until 2021.
http://www.magicicada.org/about/brood_pages/broodX.php
Brood V isn’t nearly as large and living in South Central PA, it doesn’t appear to be likely to make much of a “buzz” around here. Of course there are some cicada broods or stragglers that emerge every year, but here in the Mid-Atlantic it is Brood X that is the big one.
Tips (and Recipes) for the Cicada Invasion
Yah,I did some research after my post and found that it was,in fact,gypsy moths that we had.I think they're cyclical too.But the critters mentioned in this piece do sound rather unpleasant.
Technically, I was in Fort Washington—that was my zip code, but we were over by the Rosecroft Horse Racetrack. Our apartment complex was right behind I-95.
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