They're apparently pretty big in Japan.
Posted on 05/14/2011 10:39:34 AM PDT by decimon
ATLANTA (Reuters) – Traveling through a rural part of the U.S. state of Georgia recently, Charles Seabrook heard a high-pitched whirring so loud he thought the engine of his pickup truck was overheating.
"I was getting ready to raise my hood when I realized that I was hearing the 13-year cicadas," said Seabrook, a Georgia writer and naturalist.
Throughout the U.S. South and as far north as Illinois and Indiana, a noisy and bizarre insect ritual is playing out for the first time since 1998. After living quietly underground for 13 years, billions of red-eyed cicadas -- dubbed the "Great Southern Brood" by scientists -- are emerging to mate and quickly die.
"The most common description I've heard is that it's an alien invasion," said Nancy Hinkle, a University of Georgia professor of entomology. "It sounds like the mother ship is hovering down in the woods."
The insects are called "periodical" cicadas because they remain underground for years at a time, unlike the annual cicadas that surface each summer. There are also 17-year cicadas found largely in the Northeast and Midwest, Hinkle said.
"The periodical cicadas are about 30 percent smaller than the annual cicadas," said Hinkle. "And periodical cicadas have bright red eyes."
Commonly mistaken for locusts, they don't bite and aren't harmful to humans or crops.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
They started coming out of the ground a few days ago and now they are swarming all over. Completely harmless but annoying. Some dogs love to eat them but they can eat too many and get sick.
They're apparently pretty big in Japan.
Reminds me of summers as a kid. I’d shoot them with my rubber band gun.
Cicada-Portobello Quiche
Filling:
1 Portobello cap
¼ – ½ C blanched, teneral cicadas
Cut the Portobello into cubes. Sauté in olive oil until cooked. A few minutes before the mushroom is done cooking, add the cicadas and stir. Temporarily, set this mixture aside.
Crust:
¾ C whole wheat flour
3 T olive oil
3 T water
Mix together. Use rolling pin to roll out between two sheets of wax paper. Carefully remove top sheet of wax paper, and flip crust over into quiche pan or pie plate. Remove second sheet of wax paper. Fit crust into pan, fixing top edge and patching holes. Note: crust will be very thin.
Assembly:
¾-oz. carton basil
½ lb (approx.) cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 375° F. Put the mushroom-cicada mixture into the crust and distribute evenly. Chop the basil and sprinkle evenly over the filling. Grate the cheese and sprinkle evenly over the basil.
Custard:
4 eggs
1 - 1½ T whole wheat flour
1¼ C whole milk
1 tsp (approx.) cinnamon
¼ tsp (approx.) nutmeg
Break the eggs into a bowl, and whisk slightly. Add the flour and seasonings, and whisk until mixed. Add the milk and whisk until mixed. Set the pan of quiche in the oven, on the oven rack, then pour in the liquid.
Bake at 375° F for about 30 min until the top is golden brown. Cool slightly before cutting.
— Janet Stein Carter
I remember the invasion of the 17-year variety when I was a kid in NJ in the 60’s. I can only imagine that a warmer clime and more agricultural land (eg; the South) would support a higher population of these things. The article say they (the 13-year) are larger, too.
As I recall, there were bazillions of them, everywhere. Driving down the street became like driving on a gravel road, you scrunched so many of them.
We must have a different breed of them here in Tampa as we get them every year. They’re real annoying if you’re running a table saw, or circular saw. They keep dive bombing into your head until you stop.
Um...no thanks, I’m not hungry anymore.
Red Eye Express?
Is it possible that’s what I heard when driving thru Princeton, NJ back around 2005? In my rental car driving from Philadelphia to NY I decided to stop and take a look at the town of Princeton. All of a sudden this very loud sound appeared and I thought sure there was something wrong with the rental car.
Pulled into a parking lot and got out and what do you know — it was not the car! But what was it? Clearly it was not equipment of any kind, but I saw no bugs anywhere. There were lots of trees around so perhaps I just could not see bugs. It was early fall, in fact it was the weekend parents were getting their kids enrolled at Princeton.
Anyone have any guess as to what I was hearing? Once I got back on the road heading north the noise stopped abruptly. Crazy! We have a lot of odd things in So Cal, but nothing quite like that noise.
If it was nighttime then you could have been hearing frogs.
The 17-year ones were in the mid-atlantic in May, 2004. If you have your year off by one, yep, that’s what you heard.
Our Chihuahua Coco is a Cicada afficianado. That crazy dog got one last summer that had gotten in the house and there we sat watching her savor it slowly as she dared us to try and take it way. Uber gross!!! LOL!
What sound do they make? LoL I hear them 24-7-365.
Sounds of the cicadas in Princeton, 2004:
http://www.cicadamania.com/audio/
Sound of 17-year cicadas, Illinois, 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqys8lKsu4s
Thanks — after listening to the various sounds, I’d say I heard the N. Hieroglyphica — really an amazing sound that was so LOUD — I was very happy to get out of the area!
Awe come on, try it. Doesn’t taste anything like chicken.
I thought I remembered cicadas from when I was a kid in the 1950s but that doesn't match the timeline usually given. But here I see there are a few broods I could have witnessed and one brood does match my memory" http://insects.about.com/od/truebugs/tp/cicadabroodmaps.01.htm
Actually, one of two broods might match my memory. One in 1957 and one in 1953.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
