The Year Of The Cicada
 

After 17 years underground, millions of periodical cicadas (Brood X) will emerge throughout the eastern United States in late spring 2004.

Those who experienced the last emergence in 1987 will remember populations as large as 100,000 per acre disrupting outdoor events and sounding off with loud - almost deafening - mating calls.

http://www.indystar.com/articles/5/110576-6755-127.html

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache...hl=en&ie=UTF-8

They're different from crickets.

no, cicadas are not crickets. we have crickets also.

These things are disgusting and the fact that they lay all over the ground - gross.

-Rudey
--But it turns me on, I won't lie.

And they leave their shells all over the place.

BE AFRAID!

Haha but they have pretty colors.

-Rudey
--EWWWW

Don't forget the whole part when they are all over the ground and you accidentally stop on one and it crunches.. ewwwwww

Really? There are no chipmunks in England? How sad... I love chipmunks!

I don't think we really have problems with cicadas in Wisconsin. If we do, I don't remember them from last time around (I was only 8!).

We do. They're freaking nasty.

-GP, who stepped on one barefoot at the tender age of 4

Ew. I'll keep that in mind.

Re: The Year Of The Cicada
 

OH MY GOD THIS IS MY WORST NIGHTMARE!!!!!!
I KNEW I hadn't missed it....the last time it happened it scarred me for life....all of them flying and going in people's hair and laying all over the place....
We were just talking about this last night, and I was like, don't they come back every 15 years??? And everyone made fun of me, saying it wasn't like some horror movie or something...

Think again!!!! AAGHGHGHGHGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Are we sure of the dates? I think they last appeared in SE Ohio while my daughter was in school in Athens. She was there from 1997 to 1999.

Did someone miss the dates by 10 years? Or is the cycle different from place to place?

http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fa...cal/Index.html

There are a bunch of different kinds of 13 and 17 year cicadas - there's a calendar for them at the bottom of this page, which also has gross pictures of them.

It claims that WI doesn't get them, but yet our neighboring states do. Apparently it isn't aware that bugs travel.

We get them, but I don't think they are as bad as in a lot of places near us.

Thank god.

Oh my God, that picture is terrifying.

If those things aren't gone by my OUTDOOR wedding in September, I'm going to freak.

In the DC area they're supposed to be here in late May, and they die in a few weeks. I don't know what's going on elsewhere, but you should be OK.

That is what I was thinking!

You bitch.

That's one of the cuter pictures I found. We decided to make the cicada our department's mascot, and I have a real big ugly one tacked up on my bulletin board.

Cicada songs are one of my favorite summer things. (Along with fireflies, barbeques and walking barefoot in the grass.)

The only time I remember cicadas being around in huge numbers was the spring/summer that I was in 4th grade...so that would've been in 1991. :confused:

Not all are 17 year cicadas, some have shorter cycles. It also appears that they emerge in different areas at different times. Geeky Penguin's link has a table as to when the come to each area.

But if you live in the mid-atlantic area, LOOK OUT BEEYOTCH!

AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!


I HATE those things!!!! They are so gross!! They freaked me out when I was little. I do remember them being around alot in '89...one flew into my helmet during a little league game. my coach yelled at me for flinging my helmet off until he found out why.

i guess we must have mutant ones in nj/penn, cause every summer i hear at least one.

Don't know about SE Ohio, but we got in SW Ohio 17 years ago (I don't remember getting any in the past few years). My memories of the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History nad my 3rd grade field trips are shaded by the fact that we left our bus windows down and came back to seats COVERED in dead bugs.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I like them. I use to go out every night during the summer when i was younger (I think i was 11 or 12)and collect them, placed them on my curtains in my bedroom and watched them hatch then let them go in the morning. But then again I like most bugs and animals-I guess that is why I love my job :).

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

THAT IS THE SCARIEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD

Dude you totally wigged me out.

-Rudey
--And you're a vet, not a bug lady!

Another DC girl here. UGH! I didn't know about these things. I'm a West Coaster, transplanted here. Yet another thing to despise about my adopted home (heat, humidity, traffic, cicadas, Republicans....will it never end?).;)

I remember them being out when I was younger and they totally freaked me out. My dad took me to a park that was close to our house and it was like infested with them. I was so scared that I would not even get out of the car. Now that wonderful park that had all those evil little creatures is right across the street from my school. I am really ready for spring and warm weather, but if the cicadas are anything like I remember last time I am sprinting to class and going outside as little as possible.

When I was growing up, we had some form of cicada every summer. The noise was incredible.

We also had cicada killers (not sure what the bug's real name is). These were HUGE black flying insects that would dig up the lawn and leave cicada carcasses lying around. Females would kill a cicada and lay eggs inside, then the larvae would consume the cicada. Ewwww. They wouldn't harm humans, but they totally freaked me out. *shudder*

Dude, that sounds even creepier than cicadas.

Please please do not forget the cicadas. Remember, we are all doomed. There was an article in the Washington Post this Sunday.

F'in A.

Here's the rest of the article (although you may have to register to read it, if you care that much)

I am not afraid of bugs, but seriously, anything with an 'ovipositor' just sounds like it should be intimidating. Like its gonna attack me and I'll wake up with little worms breaking out of eggs that were depositied in my ears or nose or throat while I was asleep.

Millions of them?

Creepyness - in bulk.

I'm scared sh*tless, no lie
 

http://www.benaffleck.com/gallery/misc/d-armageddon.gif
Someone hold me....:eek: :(

The nasy bastids will be in DC May 12. I was in second grade when they came out...They are the absolute WORST, because they don't do anything but get in the way. I forgot ALL about graduation...I'm glad mine is next year LOL

I found these interesting topics


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...da_050304.html

http://cicadamania.com/

Cicadas for dinner-taste like chicken

I'm going to Maryland in 2 and a half weeks.. you think they'll still be out?
I've never seen anything like this before and I'm curious about them... my boyfriend, who lives in Maryland and is a Virginia native.. has told me about them.. he's not nearly as excited as I am to see these buggers :p

They'll be out until the end of June, so you're in luck!
:eek: :eek: :eek:

If you start digging, you can see the little bastards. They're near the surface.

DOOMED

Honestly, i am disgusted beyond reason and cannot force myself to look up the chart for fear of encountering another image of these CREATURES!

Does anyone know if Texas will be affected by the WRATH of the cicadas arounf July 4th?