Cicadas

Ringwraith917

Ringwraith917

Professional Badass
Joined
Jan 21, 2014
Messages
1,925
There's communication today about the upcoming cicada emergence. I don't think I'm in the zone of impact but I'm fascinated the upcoming possible disaster.
Who's worried about it? Put any pictures and experiences of your invasion in this thread. Happy plague season!
 
I'm zone adjacent and not too worried. It's the folks in the overlapping zone that have to be worried.
 
I'm not in the zone but recently learned something new about a friend of many years. She's a self-professed "bug nerd" and traveled to the zone where both broods have emerged to revel in all the cicada-ness going on there. Happens that the university they both attended is in the zone, so they combined the trip to see the bugs with visiting their alma mater.
Traveling any distance for the sake of seeing bugs is not something I'd do, but to each their own.
 
FlowTeamChick said:
I'm not in the zone but recently learned something new about a friend of many years. She's a self-professed "bug nerd" and traveled to the zone where both broods have emerged to revel in all the cicada-ness going on there. Happens that the university they both attended is in the zone, so they combined the trip to see the bugs with visiting their alma mater.
Traveling any distance for the sake of seeing bugs is not something I'd do, but to each their own.
Click to expand...

My grandfather was an entomologist and that is exactly the kind of thing he would have done.
His specialty was mosquitos which is why he was assigned to Alaska.
 
Had a couple of them make an appearance in our yard and house last year, far from their home. Freaked me out, didn't know what they were at first. Don't recall ever seeing one in person before. That noise is creepy!
 
happygoth said:
Had a couple of them make an appearance in our yard and house last year, far from their home. Freaked me out, didn't know what they were at first. Don't recall ever seeing one in person before. That noise is creepy!
Click to expand...

So creepy! I was just down South and the noise was 1) piercingly loud, 2) pulsed in a wave-like pattern so it'd go from loud to a lull and back again which I found the most disturbing because it was all in sync. There were so many cicada bodies dead on the ground or almost dead or they'd land on you which was creepy because they are not tiny like a mosquito.
 
happygoth said:
Had a couple of them make an appearance in our yard and house last year, far from their home. Freaked me out, didn't know what they were at first. Don't recall ever seeing one in person before. That noise is creepy!
Click to expand...
It's a bit like living near train tracks. In the South you get used to it. Then you move someplace they aren't and realize you haven't heard a "home" sound in a long long time.
 
flow4areasonuno said:
It's a bit like living near train tracks. In the South you get used to it. Then you move someplace they aren't and realize you haven't heard a "home" sound in a long long time.
Click to expand...

Trains I am used as I've lived near tracks most of my adult life. And I am even used to some light cicada noise as the neighbor's tree in my childhood had a few. But the sheer amount was so much more in the South, it was a bit jarring.
 
FlowTeamChick said:
Are some of what you're seeing the shed exoskeletons? Saw a picture on the internet of what people are making out of them. I'm all for repurposing things others would discard, but ew, those creations looked creepy.
Click to expand...

I guess I didn't look close enough to see if it was whole bodies or just exoskeletons. Some were definitely whole bodies as they were writhing on the ground but maybe that was the start of the shedding?
 
FlowTeamChick said:
Lots of mosquitos in my state. Didn't know Alaska was warm enough for long enough to breed mosquitos, but I've since looked it up and learned otherwise. Those boogers adapt every which way they can.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Alaska has 35 breeds of mosquito, some of them cataloged by my grandfather, with one that can get frozen over the winter and when it thaws just goes right back to bloodsucking.
Everything outside of downtown Anchorage is built in a swamp so there were swarms of the damned things especially around the schools.
Neighbors would get together to hire a Cessna with sprayers to mist the area with bug killer.
My grandfather said that was a great way to spend money they had laying around since it meant people got work but that this wouldn't see less mosquitos until a lot more of the city was paved over.
Now 30 years later we finally have enough of the city paved that mosquitos aren't a problem.
I suspect my grandfather would have found it all rather amusing.
 
Last edited:
Made the mistake of going camping in 2004 when cicada brood X was out in full swing. Little buggers are loud and dumb as fuck.

I lost count on how many Darwined themselves into the campfire.
 
Where I live I hear and see cicadas pretty frequently, but strangely this year so far I've barely heard any and only seen one.
 
Back
Top