Posted on 05/10/2021 9:07:24 AM PDT by dynachrome
Every 17 years the billions of constituents of Brood X tunnel up from their subterranean lairs to spend their final days partying in the sun. This generation got its start back in 2004, when Facebook existed only at Harvard University and Friends aired its last episode. The newly hatched cicada nymphs fell from the trees and burrowed into the dirt. They have been underground ever since, feeding on sap from the rootlets of grasses and trees and slowly maturing. All of that preparation has been leading up to this moment when they surface in droves—up to 1.4 million cicadas per acre—to molt into their adult form, sing their deafening love song and produce the next generation before dying just a few weeks later.
To early European settlers in North America, the sudden appearance of these insects in large numbers brought to mind the locusts of biblical infamy. But whereas locusts are grasshoppers that form giant swarms and travel long distances, devouring crops on a devastating scale, cicadas belong to an entirely different order of insects. They do not swarm and are poor fliers, typically traveling no more than several hundred feet. Moreover, they pose little threat to plants because they do not eat plant tissues. Females do make incisions in twigs for their eggs, which can weaken saplings but not mature trees and shrubs.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
Brood Y will mostly stay underground (in the basement, so to speak).
The ones that do exert the energy to come up will expect a tiny blue ribbon for showing up.
They will spend much of their time in yard trees, watching TVs and PC screens through the home’s windows.
They will mate at a fraction of the normal rate.
More bugs for the kitties to bring to mama.
Seems like skillful digging carnivores would completely wipe out cicada nymphs before they break the surface.
Maybe they taste bad or something?
My brother-in-law got out of the car and said, "What is that maraca's?"
My dogs think they are delicious.
They were at my college graduation in 1970. Bob Dylan was an honor graduate there. He later commemorated the occasion with “The Day of the Locusts.”
Enjoy the mayfly swarms!
Lol. I don't mind them. They make the flies I tie work better!
I remembered seeing starlings in a previous cycle who were too stuffed with cicada larvae to fly.
When my son was a young’un he asked me why those things were laughing at him.
I love the sound. To me that is the sound of summer!
I never heard them until my dad was assigned to Altus AFB, Oklahoma in the 1960’s. Then I wondered what is that constant screeching? When I saw the discarded shells on the trees they looked prehistoric.
Bad time to ride a motorcycle!
Good time to own a car wash.
well, the new windows also come with a unique “close” feature now...
:)
years ago I was in South Carolina in the woods looking at property. I heard that sound and was wondering if I had gone into the setting for a horror film. Really eerie until I found out what it was.
Are they called Brood X because they have dropped their slave names, like the Nation of Islam adherents?
Makes sense to me!
I was never bothered by them. They eat other bugs, therefore they are my friend.
My real hatred is with mosquitoes. I own three Dynatraps.
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