Quote:
Originally posted by FirstAndFinest
Chill, Leslie  These creatures DON"T live in NJ, which is why I moved back here from TN!! 
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Are you certain? 'cause we sure as heck had them in Maryland! And I lived in south Bowie, about the same area as Washington DC, a little south of Annapolis and Baltimore.
My dad knew my mom was a little freaked by cicadas. We used to get two kinds-- the usual big greenish kind, and the special every-17-years more black and orange and red kind. They loved to hang out on our weeping willow tree in the back yard and molt, leaving behind these little crusty skin bodies. Kind of like onion-skin, just a little thicker maybe.
So my dad takes some of this liquid modelling putty stuff, and fills up two of the cicada bodies with it. There's a slit in the back from where they came out, wings first, so the body just has the body and the legs, so to speak. Anyway, when the putty's dry, he takes out all of his model train/plane paints, and paints the outside of the skins all black and grey, and adds the little beady eyes, and covers it with a clear gloss.
And then posted the two of them on the top roller of the typewriter (big ol' green behemoth of a typewriter-- this was the late 70's/early 80's). And asks her to type up some sort of letter.
Oh, the scream!
And yes, they're about a half-inch to 3/4 of an inch in diameter, and about a good inch and a half in length. About the size of your tuumb, kinda. They never got in my way most years; it was only when you hit the 17-year cycle that they got nasty. It's kind of like their spring break or something-- they're just everywhere, and you can't help but to have them run into you.