17-Year Cicadas Will Overrun The East Coast Any Day Now

Business insider ^ | 5/28//13 | Ma nature

[central_va]

The noise these critters make sounds like a cheap 50's space ship sound effect.

[central_va]

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

I’m in rural Louisa Co. and it sounds like the Martian war machines from the original War of the Worlds film!

[Perdogg]

I wonder if the recent cold snap killed a bunch of them.

[Buckeye McFrog]

They’ve only been coming around every 17th. summer for a couple hundred million years. But that won’t stop the low info crowd from FULL SCALE PANIC!!!

[JPG]

After waiting 17 years they’re ready to get down and get busy.

[headsonpikes]

Bush’s fault!

[Safetgiver]

Stockpile them babies. It may be the only thing to eat in 10 years.

[22202NOVA]

I haven’t seen or heard any. Not even once, Miss Lewinsky.

I think they’re pretty cool though.

[central_va]

I wonder if the recent cold snap killed a bunch of them.

Doesn't seem to hurt the little guys around here.

[central_va]

Nova gets brood X, lower parts of VA get brood II. Different 17 year cycles. If you go south to Fredericksburg you will see them though.

[GreenAccord]

I was having a conversation with my teenage daughter who, in typical low-information-biology-education fashion, thought the impending cicadas plague was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Even though these things are going to be a substantial nuisance, they really do speak to the majesty and amazing works of the Lord. By providing a food source that appears only once every 17 years, He creates a way for nature to cross the boundaries of the occasional brutal winter, or summer drought, or spring floods.

As I understand it, the re-emergence of the bugs is actually a regional event, with some areas of the country on a different 17-year sequence. What a beautiful way to ensure survival of species by providing a binge of food every so often, so as to ensure population booms among the types of animals and birds that feed on these blooms of insects across the country/planet.

[Nepeta]

The local 17 year brood hatched out here in 2004. They were noisy, pervasive, but they don't really do much else. They're neat to look at with those orange-rimmed eyes. One got down the back of my dress and began singing many minutes later while I was driving at 65 mph. But I knew what it was, though it was startling, and just shook the beast out in the parking lot.

The east coast will survive.

[central_va]

You can sell the rare blue eyed ones on e-bay.

[Reagan Disciple]

We get these every year in NY, yet ours are green and black and not what is pictured. There are enough to make a nuisance even in what is considered a low volume year.

Last huge year I can remember was 1985 when they littered the streets.

[Buckeye McFrog]

After waiting 17 years they’re ready to get down and get busy.

Sorta makes you wonder why we didn't call them "Prombugs"?

[knarf]

I already have a pretty good case of tinitus ... maybe it’ll be white noise and I’ll hear perfectly .. ! ??

[central_va]

Not much of Brood II is in PA.

[central_va]

[USMCPOP]

“Billions of bite-sized snacks are about to appear in your backyard.”

http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/849537_17-year-cicadas-are-edible—taste-a-lot-like-shrimp.html

There are cookbooks for them.

[S.O.S121.500]

Fish Bait! Bream, trout, Both Bass, an Easy Fly pattern.
What’s not to like?