March 25, 2004

Brood X is coming Having lain dormant in the soil since 1987, these critters are set to swarm. And they aren't the annual cicadas you hear making a racket every summer. These puppies like company. Companies are already selling ways to protect from the damage they can cause. If you don't count the folks who think they're a tasty treat, they have but one natural enemy: the cicada killer.
posted by anonymous 20 years ago
  • No problem, if the cicada killers don't work, we'll unleash some snakes. Then the snake eating gorillas, and those will die in the winter...
  • great post! sometime in the mid '70s our town (champaign, illinois) was totally overwhelmed with cicadas. i was just little kid but it made a big impression on me. now i have a love/freakout relationship with them, and judging by the map on that site i'll probably get a good chance to catch up with my little pals here in new york this time around. yes!! (OK, i realize that these are a different brood cus' the 17's don't add up evenly, but still...)
  • (related link: memorizing the 10 plagues of egypt. heh.)
  • I remember last time. People were using push brooms and scoop shovels to clear them off the sidewalks. I hate bugs, but I do have fond memories of the excitment they caused.
  • hey dirtdirt- I have memories of a similar thing sometime in the mid-1970's also- (1975? 1976? 1977?) I was visiting cousins in eastern Iowa, and the memories of cicadas swarming all over everything, even inside the house, made a huge impression on me as well. I remember my aunt trying to keep her house free of cicadas, she would get up really early in the morning and bomb the ground floor of the house with Raid, and then sweep up huge piles of dead cicadas (or so they seemed to me at the time.) Freaky.
  • I'm kind of looking forward to it myself. The last time I saw this happen was a different brood in Missourri in the late 70's. As a little boy fascinated with animals I thought it was the neatest thing ever. But they're going to be loud as hell. They're actually telling women planning outdoor weddings to reschedule. And I have a hunch the media overcoverage is going to be louder.
  • See what happens when gays get to marry? [/off-topic sarcasm]
  • (hey, the_lev, is that true about the weddings? might make a good/quirky news story. where did you see/hear that?)
  • SideDish, from your first link's FAQ: I'm afraid cicadas will ruin my wedding! Dr. Gene Kritsky has already helped 34 couples plan their Spring 2004 weddings to avoid interference from the cicada emergence. "Many want to avoid the cicadas, so I have been helping with picking the dates and the locations for their weddings," he explains. "However, I would like to point out that a cicada wedding is very romantic. Nobody celebrates their 17th wedding anniversary much more meaningful. Of course, this also pertains to 34th and 51st wedding anniversaries." Who would have thought that entomologists could double as wedding consultants?
  • When we were young, my cousin who lived out in the country (by which I mean Long Island) collected them to sell to the Chinese herbalist. I miss hearing them on summer nights, having moved to California. I also miss seasons...
  • You can have ours, Daniel. We seem to have far too many as it is. SideDish: I'm in love with the phrase First-Born (Slaying Of). It sounds so... Impersonal.
  • cicadas taste daaaaaaammmmn good.
  • I always look forward to watching the general chaos created by cicadas! I gleefully watch in the comfort of my cicada-free Pacific Northwest home. BTW, I would probably need therapy if I had to deal with something like that. Too overwhelming for this insect-fearin' chick.
  • i love the shells they leave when they finish molting into the adult stage. they look so creepy, these empty hollow husks, still clinging to the tree they emerged onto. the eyes seem to stare at you in an empty sort of way. if you collect a few of these, they will cling to your skin if you push them gently. fun to decorate yourself with cicada skins, and fun to scare your younger relatives as well. of course i was always too interested in the shells to risk having my cousins or sister just crush one out of fear, so i just kinda played with them, seeing how many i could detach from the tree and then reattach to the tree or to myself without breaking the fragile legs off. but then again, i'm probably just weird.
  • Ugh, ugh, ugh. I liked the idea of cicada killers. But, large wasps? UGH. [Lifelong entomophobe. Considering hibernation this summer.]
  • I remember these guys freaking me out back in 1987 when I was a six year old. Some early critters hatched at our house last year [only about a hundred or so] and I knew it was coming. our dachshund is going to freak.
  • Insects, why cry? We all go that way. -- Issa, trans. Robert Bly
  • We just heard (consciously, anyway), our first evening cicadas of the summer early last week. Between that and the frogs chirping and croaking down at the lake, I wanted nothing so bad as to camp out and let them lull me to sleep.