Well, the long awaited arrival of the cicadas has happened. Ours appeared last Friday. They have gotten louder over the weekend and now they are really loud. It isn’t an unpleasant sound. It is a little bit like crickets, but during the day. Does anyone else have them?
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We had ours a few years ago. The noise was annoying but what I really hated was the stench of the decomposing bugs. I had one tree that looked like I had mulched around it (I never had) due to the dead carcasses. Cutting the grass around that tree was quite unpleasant. The good news is that I didn’t need to aerate the yard that year. The bad news is we did have a lot of moles in the yard that year.
The epicenter will be around Decatur, IL. The 17 year and 13 year groups will converge.
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I know cicadas are harmless but they are my irrational fear
I was a barbarian as a child. We would tie a string around their head and let them fly around in circles.
When I was older, and out in the woods with my boss, he noticed a couple of the outer skin they shed clinging to a tree near us. He was fascinated and asked me if I knew what they were. So I explained and he’d heard about them but never seen one in his whole life (about 50 years) working outdoors and living in Montana (we were in New Mexico). I don’t think it was a coincidence that we saw three rattlesnakes during the time we were working in that area. They were probably just laying there waiting for the next one to emerge from the ground.
Kind of like my husband who’d never seen a firefly until his late thirties. I don’t think they exist in most of the west.
Ugh, I saw my first ones of the season last night. I’m not looking forward to seeing how many we get. My mom who lives in an area with a lot, bought a hat with netting. lol
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The cicadas are getting louder every day here. Today, I had my new counter tops installed in my kitchen. When the installers arrived, they had a wide eyed look and asked what was that noise!!! I had to laugh. The cicadas were something that they had heard about but never really thought about.
We have cicadas in the summer here in Arizona but they aren’t the periodic kind as far as I know. Every once in a while one will get in the house, and while I know they are harmless they really freak me out.
One time late at night I opened the door to let the dog out and one flew in the house, buzzing like crazy, flew all around for a few seconds and then crash landed on its back in a glass of water, still buzzing frantically. I edged close enough to take a photo and then got my son, who must have heard me shriek and came downstairs, to get the glass and toss the water and the bug outside.
My kids when they were young would gather the cicada shells and stir them up in muddy water for “cicada skin soup.” No one ever taste tested it though.
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I’m kind of glad we don’t have them in Maine.
We lived through a brood emergence when we lived in NE Ohio. We lived on a heavy wooded lot surrounded by a large wooded park, and it was horrible. The dog didn’t even want to leave the house. They were everywhere. Stuck all over the screens and the side of the house and the noise was so loud that people could hear it on the other end of the phone.
The fish were happy though - we could see them jumping in the pond to eat the cicadas. My D found that highly entertaining.
I’m hoping that this emergence won’t be as bad because I’m in a much more urban environment. Hope springs eternal!
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I was around for three outbreaks so far. In the one in 2007 I collected a bunch from the Chicago Arboretum. I cooked them, and shared them around as a snack.
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The birds have been ignoring our bird feeders for the last few days. It seems that easy to get cicadas are a better treat!!!
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Went hiking with a friend yesterday about 20 miles from my house and the cicadas were EVERYWHERE. It was so loud that I felt like I needed ear protection and the shrubs and trees were crawling with them. Soooooo gross. Feeling very very lucky that it isn’t that bad by my house! (Knock on wood it stays that way).
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It is so loud at our house, much closer to you than 20 miles away! They are everywhere…DH took a video when walking the dogs and the din is unpleasant. I don’t think I can post videos here sadly. One of the dogs is eating many of them, so she’s doing her part.
We aren’t near the current outbreak, but were living in the zone of a 17 year emergence a few years ago. I was working remotely over Zoom inside my house, and my colleagues could hear them, even with all the windows/doors closed.
My H would sweep the sidewalks every day, which became covered with their outer shells. And my dogs enjoyed their all-you-can-eat buffet in the backyard!
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I wonder if we’re just delayed but so far we have hardly any here at all.
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