Posted on 01/29/2021 12:15:37 PM PST by BeauBo
In one of nature’s mysteries, 15 states will soon witness the reemergence of Brood X — or the Great Eastern Brood — of periodical cicadas. These “large, winged, kind of scary-looking but mostly harmless flying insects known for their almost deafening buzz” emerge in-unison every 17 years.
Periodical cicadas have “black bodies and bold red eyes,” and spend 17 years lying underground in “wingless nymph form,” feeding on sap. While most cicadas travel as individuals or in small groups after reaching adulthood, periodical cicadas follow a strict schedule...
“The end of May through June, it can get pretty loud — if you are in an area where they are numerous, there can be hundreds of thousands, or millions, of them,”...
Raupp estimated that there could be as many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre, which would place the total population of Brood X in the trillions.
Brood X, “one of the largest broods of periodical cicadas in the nation,” will emerge in 15 states: Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailywire.com ...
My other favorite bug are dragonflies................Nature's perfection of flight.
For us it’s en masse every year. There’s no super year. There’s no mellow year. There’s the massive drone, every year, especially if you have really bushy bushes or a lot of trees in the area. Place I grew up had huge oleanders and there was a window every summer where they would drown out everything. Gotta crank up the stereo and TV, all conversations are yelled. Learn to love the panic sound they make when a bird gets em.
BTW, we also got the 13-year cicadas the other year. I don’t recall having them before. But it was like a mini-17. Shorter in duration and not quite so many or as loud, but definitely noticeable compared to normal years.
We had one brood in south-west Virginia last year. Their song is lovely. Quite different from the chain saw sound the yearly ones pump out. They are actually quite beautiful to look at as well. They’d gather together on tree leaves in a circle and sing. Yeah, I’m a weird lady who loves bugs with exception of WASPS and HORNET. UGH! either.
Totally off topic, but I want to know why pork has been dirt cheap for at least a year, but bacon still costs $7 a pound!
“I’ve been through a couple of those cycles. It’s interesting.”
You live underground for 17 years at a time? Wow, you are quite unique ;>)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada_3301
You’ll find your 4chan falling all over the town
Be sure that your umbrella is upside down
Trade them for a package of sunshine and flowers
If you want the things you love
You must have showers
So when you hear it thunder don’t run under a tree
They’re cicadas from heaven for you and me.
Just think, they never experienced either Barack Obama or Donald Trump...
If you’re on the west coast you won’t get this one.
There was a great site listing all the periodic types and broods and where they focused.
“Where are the murder hornets when you need them?”
Interesting you say that because I have observed a European Hornet...I swear on all that is Holy....attacking one. They were both on the ground, cicada squealing like crazy, and the hornet stinging it. Tried to fly off with it, but was too heavy so it started eating on it right there. I love nature, and that was a very, unusual sight.
Cicadas are not locusts
Honey bee is my favorite closely followed by praying mantis! Walking sticks...how cool are they!? Butterflies, gosh I love all of nature (other than the previously mentioned wasps/hornets). Dragonflies I save out of my pool when they get stuck. Like to hold them and let them dry off and fly away. Saved a few cicadas that way too.
They might be related to the Zanti Misfits from The Outer Limits. Except the Zanti Misfits will kill yo A$$.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp_i2fvL3vQ
DC is not a state ... yet
“Mostly harmiess”
Is that like ‘mostly peaceful’?
If it just saves one child’s life...
But there’s a boom every 17 years. I think there’s a 13 year cicada, as well.
Cicadas are not locusts....
I think I am getting people confused. I know they aren’t.
Note a post on this thread that says in the State of New York they call the cicadas locusts or katsydids.
In Michigan we didn’t When I was a kid I used to marvel at the fact that the cicadas in dormant form were underground and our particular neighborhood had many loud thousands coming out when the year was right. And avoiding predators by alternating the cycles. Such an interesting point.
New Yorker said: “ Since most predators have a two-to-ten-year population cycle, the twelve-year cicadas would be a feast for any predator with a two-, three-, four-, or six-year cycle.”
But the cicadas are synchronized in 13 nd 17 year cycles to avoid this.
Yes, I was a bit confused. I am in Michigan, too. Love their late summer sound.
I did not see those nasty cicada killer, wasp things until last year. Now those would be a plague.
Its like having a bad case of tinnitus.
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