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 ...
17 years reproductive cycle... deafening cries while seeking mates..
This behavior is not confined to locusts.
You mean like OWS and SJW and #blm at a Trump disruption event? :>)
If we could put an end to it who would notice?
I was thinking more along the lines of teenagers at a hip-hop concert.
:>)
-—If we could put an end to it who would notice?-—
Just curious, just how do you do that...?
As a side note, I’m not real sure it’s a good thing to play God with mother nature...
Seen them once here on the farm since I bought it, that was several years ago.
Different type here I’m sure, as I am in Nor. Cal.
Cool critter, the trout love them.
They’re huge too, not like grasshoppers or locusts. More like a massive cockroach, only without all the waving antennae.
My question is “WHY WOULD ANYBODY WANT TO DO THAT”, they don’t seem to bother anything.
It’s just one of those comforting, cyclical, natural things that happens in the world.
Anyone have some good cicada recipes to share?
We’ve had it here in Cincy; up close, they are cute and look like a nerd with thick glasses. When they fail and end up on their back, I can’t help but turn them over...alas, they die like 24 hrs later or less.
I remember that from the early-mid 1980’s.Trees in full bloom in May,stripped bare by July.I was working evenings at the hospital then and would walk home from the train station on a quiet,tree-lined,suburban street at around midnight.You could actually *hear* the bugs munching on the leaves!
I remember vacationing in the Ozarks with kids in 1982. The things were sometimes two and three bodies thick along the paths. No fish were biting since they were gorged on the cicadas. The noise was deafening. I don’t remember 1999 so much. Lots of stuff going on that summer. This looking to be another drought year although that probably won’t affect the emergence.
The big cohort of cicadas doesn’t return to the mid-Atlantic region until 2021.
....You mean at a BIG Trump rally?
You’re asking me? I didn’t claim to know how to do that. I didn’t even hint at it.
I don’t understand the analogy.
No one sings at a Hip Hop concert.
No draught in northern Texas.
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