On the good days my Tinnitus reminds me of them.

I love that sound, and playing with them and the shells as a kid.

 
The Eastern/Southern cicada are periodic, 13 year cycles and 17 year cycles. I recall one year while living in MD that both cycles happened to fall in the same year. That was a noisy year.
 
Why do cicadas emerge in prime number cycles?
 
We also have them in AZ. The variety is called Apache Cicadas.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Obviously, you are not from the South. Summer wouldn't be the same without the cicadas.

Yep. It's one of the first things I think of when I remember what it was like visiting my aunt and uncle in the summers outside Ft. Worth.

quote:

Originally posted by sig 226:
They taste like chicken...

And if you have chickens, they'll feast like kings on the "remnants."

Don't you have to eat them every day for a month to be in Special Forces?

quote:

Originally posted by Jupiter:
Don't give Tyson Foods any bright ideas.

Well their chicken tastes like insects, so maybe it will be an improvement, or at least not noticable

Oh also, they're harmless. They don't bite or sting. You can pick them or let them crawl on you if they don't fly away.

I am from the south, but not there anymore, and I hear everyone getting hyped up about the "17 year cycle" and thought "don't we get cicadas every year, what's the deal"? Apparently they're not anywhere but the south?

There are two varieties. The annual ones are generally green and bigger. The 17 year are red and smaller. When you crush them with your tires, they leave a greasy mess. The red/17 year come in different broods. Meaning some 17 years cicada's occur in different years, but 17 year cycles.

If you're on a cycle, they hurt when they hit. So many more of the red ones in their "year". Both make the singing noise. Badmiton rackets work well on them. You hit them and get a very satisfying "boing" sound. Not enough of the green ones to make much sport.

They come out of the ground where they went in. This house was built in 2010, so the ground has been disturbed. Undisturbed places see more. One of my son's had a 4 year old. They sat out on their deck and shot them with plastic BBs. Hit them right and and the head comes off the body. Good sport. No shortage of targets. We live in the brood that that comes out this year. Badmitten rackets work better than tennis rackets, smaller openings.

Man, nothing lures copperheads like cicadas.

quote:

Originally posted by Jester814:

quote:

Originally posted by Jupiter:
Don't give Tyson Foods any bright ideas.

Well their chicken tastes like insects, so maybe it will be an improvement, or at least not noticable

LOL..... I can't argue with that. Maybe this is why. Bug meat is going mainstream.

Eating insects will soon go mainstream as bug protein is set to explode into an $8 billion business.

https://www.businessinsider.co...ness-barclays-2019-6

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Obviously, you are not from the South. Summer wouldn't be the same without the cicadas.

I didn't realize that they were local to any specific regions. I assumed they were all over the country, maybe minus the desert?

Nope. We have them here in central AZ. Lots of them and they are loud AF. I like the sounds of them. I saw green army men tied to them, we used to have little kites. Tie some fish line to a leg, and off they go.

Our family dog would gain 10# during any of the 3,7,14 yr hatches. She loved eating them

Our first Lab loved to eat them. It was kind of gross. But apparently harmless.

quote:

Originally posted by David Lee:
These are said to be coming up after 17 years below the ground. Perhaps its eggs hatching. I understand they come out almost to the exact day.

They are 17 year cicadas. Named after the amount of time they spend in the ground as grubs. The emerge as bugs, crawl up trees, crack open their bug shells, spread their wings, dry a little, and fly off, leaving their shells behind.



Wonderful critters. Everything eats them. Wasps, birds, squirrels, even people. They were eaten by native Americans. It's considered a time when nothing goes hungry. When a brood comes up, they come up by the billions. It doesn't last long. But You'll likely get some smashed against your windshield.

Here in southeast Virginia, we don't have any specific broods. We get the yearly summer cicadas. Love the sound of them in the summertime. Like Para said, it really is the song of the south.

As pointed out, the annual variety (green and black, almost like good camouflage) makes a harsher sound that is cyclical; that is the sound each individual makes starts sift, ratchets up in volume, then tapers off and is quite loud. Their relatively low numbers let you hear them individually.

Brood X or 10 is due this year and covers a large chunk of the eastern US. They are an interval variety of cicada. The interval variety (they come in a several “flavors” depending on year number cycle and region of the country) are a little smaller, black and yellow with red eyes. These have more of a gentle trilling sound that because of their sheer numbers create a non-stop background noise that goes on all day. The species subscribes to a strategy called “predator satiation”. Their numbers are so vast that things that eat them do so until they can’t consume another. They succeed because they can’t possibly all be eaten. At the peak of the swarm you will literally see them everywhere you look and hear them without a break until the post mating/egg laying die off. Here’s the map of where their range can be expected.



In addition, here is a map that includes all of the various broods and expected emergence location and year they should arrive.

Thank you all for the entertainment and education of these bugs. I watched part of a video showing the females poking a spear on their butt into the lower side of tree branches, depositing 30 eggs in each spot. I didnt watch the whole video so I dont know how they get from the branches, back into the ground. I think the youngins coming up from the ground were called nymphs.

quote:

I dont know how they get from the branches, back into the ground

When they hatch, they simply drop to the ground, dig in and graze on roots for approximately 13 or 17 years, depending on the brood. Here is an article that explains it a little better.

https://www.cicadamania.com/ci...cicada-anatomy/eggs/

Amazing. Thank you gearhounds. I will keep a eye out for these come May.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Obviously, you are not from the South. Summer wouldn't be the same without the cicadas.

I didn't realize that they were local to any specific regions. I assumed they were all over the country, maybe minus the desert?

They appear here, as well.

quote:

Originally posted by sig 226:
They taste like chicken...

Well, Ellie, my former yellow lab would agree, Last go-round, in 2007, she ate probably thousands of them. Acted like it was quite a treat.