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Cicadas 2021 - Brood X


FXW176
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I remember thinking it was sort of cool in 2004 when I was a kid. Assuming I'll be amused by it for an hour or two and then want to be rid of the huge bugs. Not looking forward to them showing up in my house or the dogs trying to eat them and getting stomachaches. A few are fine - but gorging on them won't be good. 

Everyone get your Rain-X washer fluid ready to get all those bug guts off your windshields! 

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Now this is a thread I can sink my teeth into!!  I actually think the brood of cicadas is one of the most amazing natural wonders in our area.  I remember graduating from high school in 1987 with an outdoor graduation.  The weather was beautiful, but people in the audience actually put umbrella's up thinking it would keep the cicadas away from their hair...umm...it did not work.  The sound they were making was so loud you could barely hear the speakers.  I graduated from a private school where we all wore white tuxedo's, not gown and cap, so the buggers were easy to spy on all of our white tuxes.  I thought it was awesome!  Will never forget my high school graduation, that's for sure!

Then the next time they appeared, I had 2 young children.  My wife and I decided we would enter the realm of trying to eat the bugs!  Stir fried cicadas, cicada bread, and cicada cookies are a few of the things we tried.  I remember convincing my 4 year old that they would be great to eat.  She ate them and seemed to really enjoy them.  My 2 year old would have nothing of it!  She gave an angry face and spit them out.  In all honesty, I found them to be bitter and not worth the effort of eating them.  A little too earthy tasting for me, but now that I am 17 years older, and my taste buds are almost all dead, I may just have to try them again.

Can't wait to see a deeper covering of bugs than many of our snow events this year :P

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I was here for the Brood X emergence in 2004.  It was interesting, actually...maybe a bit annoying an noisy, but at the same time kind of cool to be honest.  That May was very warm and I think they actually emerged and then disappeared more quickly, peaking around Memorial Day weekend.  They definitely got all over the place.  I recall playing in a softball game out in Virginia in the league I play on, having to practically swat the damned things away while in the outfield!

Here's a photo I got at the time (very low res digital camera back then, LOL!), of a cicada emerging from its shell.  I always found it neat how they come out white with black "eyebrows", before they dry and harden into the normal black color with the clear-orange wings.

560998107_EmergingCicada2.thumb.jpg.6d958c88e397fc927c284657c886ee84.jpg

 

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23 minutes ago, stormtracker said:

I absolutely HATE them.  They remind of one of the two things that are my weakness: a big ass roach.    I HATE HATE HATE them.   This is the time of year that I love birds even more.   A buffet for them.

Gonna put them in that bottle of JWB

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43 minutes ago, stormtracker said:

I absolutely HATE them.  They remind of one of the two things that are my weakness: a big ass roach.    I HATE HATE HATE them.   This is the time of year that I love birds even more.   A buffet for them.

Don't worry there will also be giant wasps eating them too

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphecius_speciosus

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I read somewhere that some of them emerged early in 2017, wonder if that lessens the amount we'll see this year?

 

i vaguely remember some being around in 17 when I was living in sterling, but it was sort of a dud compared to 87 when they were everywhere.

The 87 swarm was pretty epic, I was about 6 or 7 and we were throwing them /planting them everywhere, having cicada fights

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