# Cicadas are coming!



## Brian G Turner (May 21, 2004)

Anyone from the US experiencing this yet?


*America hit by storm of insects*

   A swarm of cicadas has emerged after 17 years underground in the eastern US.   Trillions of the insects will blanket the landscape in a frenzy of breeding, before dying en masse in June. 

   The bugs, which have the longest known adult-to-adult cycle, will have to contend with a more developed world than the one they left behind in 1987. 

   Some scientists say urbanisation is endangering periodical cicadas: at least one population is already extinct and others are at risk, they fear.


  This month though, if you are in the thick of the action, it is hard to imagine a time without cicadas.

   "There is loud singing in the tree above me right now and the sidewalk is littered with dead bodies," Jenna Jadin, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Maryland, told BBC News Online. 

   "It's amazing - there is a covering of 'shells' pretty much everywhere."


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## Blue Mythril (Jun 22, 2004)

That's so odd... I didn't even realise the US had cicadas O.O
Here we get them seasonally. In summer the noise is just so beautiful and relaxing. We never have an enmasse emmergence like that.
Do you know why those cicada's life cylce is so different? Or even what type they are?


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## Brian G Turner (Jun 22, 2004)

I'm afraid I've no idea - and I've seen no follow up on this story since I posted it.


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## mzarynn (Jun 22, 2004)

I haven't heard the cicadas yet this year in northern Michigan, but I'm sure they're coming.  I have heard about this particular breed of cicadas coming this year, but I don't know any more than Brian posted.


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## Sirathiel (Jun 23, 2004)

I've seen lots of pictures on TV about the cicadas last time I was in Germany... But that was around the same date that Brian started this thread. I think the pictures shown were of this year and not 17 years ago (TV quality did improve over that time span...).

But since then I have heard nothing more about it... Strange...


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## zorka (Jun 26, 2004)

The 17 year Cicadas are part of the breed called Periodical Cicadas. This particular period (17 years) are the Brood X variety. The other variety is the 13 year cycle kind. Anyway, they are pests when they emerge, believe me, as they have been around here. They spend most of their lives underground sucking on tree roots, but emerge, transform into adults and go looking for love!  They mate, the males begin to die off and the female takes a little more time to burrow a nest, lay eggs, then also dies off. 





 The cicadas are huge - about 2 inches long, but harmless. When I would drive around they were all over buildings in large clusters, flying through the air, landing on my car, buzzing you (inadvertently), etc. They land on your clothes, you brush them off, etc. Real pests (though many claim they are a tasty morsel, though I cannot bring myself to try it).


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## Brian G Turner (Jun 26, 2004)

Are they bugging you now, Zorka? There was a real sense of hype when the story was released - a sense of America being brought to it's knees by a plague of insects - but the story doesn;t appear to have lived up to its promise.


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## Blue Mythril (Jun 26, 2004)

Here we go, we get them every summer but they do have a long lifespan here. http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/cicada.htm
It sounds strange that yours only come out rarely and in such great numbers.
I think ours are really pretty, I loved the green ones when I was a kid, and the teeny weeny Tom Thumbs  They were so much fun, kids would wear them into class, stick them in other's hair... Great times 


> but the story doesn;t appear to have lived up to its promise.


That's media for you. its all a big drama. Have you guys seen Frontline? Very funny stuff, taking off the media, current affairs shows and dramatic storytelling


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## zorka (Jun 29, 2004)

I said:
			
		

> Are they bugging you now, Zorka?


 They are now officially dead for another seventeen years. You are right, Blue, that media hyped it. But they were much more of an irritant than you would have believed. They were harmless, but very, very loud (I could hear them over my radio in my car WITH my windows closed, at times) and you couldn't walk down the street without being bombarded by them.

 Some people had to get up every morning and sweep their walks or crunch over them.  It was a daily event for several weeks.


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Jun 29, 2004)

Erm...are cicadas the same as crickets? 


ignorant knivesout


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## Esioul (Jun 29, 2004)

We don't get those things, although I've heard we're going to get more mosquiotos and therefore malaria.


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## zorka (Jul 1, 2004)

knivesout said:
			
		

> Erm...are cicadas the same as crickets?


 Only in so far as they are both noisemaking insects. As I recall Cicadas make their noise by rubbing their wings together and crickets their legs.



			
				esioul said:
			
		

> We don't get those things, although I've heard we're going to get more mosquiotos and therefore malaria.


 Ulp! I thing I'll stick with cicadas!  Though we certainly get lots of mosquitos and of late West Nile Virus.


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## littlemissattitude (Jul 1, 2004)

No cicadas here, thank goodness. The crickets and the frogs are bad enough, as far as noise goes. We even had a frog get in the house a few weeks ago. Cute little thing; I saw him hopping across the living room rug one evening. I tried to catch up with him, but he got away and apparently got out of the house. Oh, we have lizards, too, but they're quiet little guys and girls. I love to watch them running around in the yard.

We also have mosquitoes. As far as I know, West Nile hasn't gotten to our part of the state yet. It is present in some parts of southern California, though, and you can bet I was real careful not to be outside at dawn or dusk, when they are most active, when we were down there last week. Especially considering the fact that if there is mosquito within a mile of me, it will find me and bite me. And the stupid thing is, I never feel them; only see the bite that's left over later. I try not to be too concerned about it; most people who get West Nile don't even know it. But I've already had several bites this summer, and every time I find one I get nervous about it.


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## Blue Mythril (Jul 1, 2004)

Urg, we have mosquitos.
I hate mosquitos -.-
They always eat me, hell I got eaten by mosquitos in England and you guys arn't even supposed to have any (at least, thats the sales pitch over here).
Damn little bloodsuckers.


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Jul 1, 2004)

Heh, mosquitos. They are almost my second family.


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