17 year Cicadas

[runnerbyproxy]

They are out in abundance here in Cincinnati and singing really LOUD. In some of the older parts of the city, the noise is deafening!

Flea, I enjoyed seeing those PA cicadas as well. Your Cicada rescue was quite amusing as well! You are something else.

[fleaflicker]

I felt sorry for the poor thing. Well, after I wanted to see if the fish would gobble it up.... lol

I watched one of them emerge earlier tonight. It takes a lot of patience, but it is a fascinating process. First, the nymph crawls up a tree trunk nearby, and it is generally left alone by ants at this time. Then, it sits still a lot while, and while it isn't moving much as far as location, one can tell that there is a bit of a struggle taking place inside the newly emerged insect. Slowly, it stops moving, just completely stops, for about 15 minutes or 20 minutes. Then there is a white spot where the skin of the nymph is really thin, and it starts to spread on the back of the nymph. The head of the new cicada comes out first, and it is a mighty struggle. This is followed by the legs and the rest of the body, generally taking about ten minutes to emerge. Then it hangs at a right angle from it's shell, with it's tail still inside, for probably about ten to fifteen minutes or so. Then, slowly, it pulls itself up, like it's doing a sit up, and grips it's peeled off shell with it's legs. Then, with one final pull, it yanks its tail from the shell of the nymph, and sits there for a little while to dry off. At this time, the body and legs are almost completely white, though a little while after emerging they will darken to black. At any time though, from the time that they go completely still (at least in place) til they finally yank their tail from their shell, they are completely vulnerable and helpless to anything, including backyard pissants many times smaller than they are. But once they emerge, they are no longer in danger, and can defend themselves again, at least from smaller insect enemies. I saw several partially emerged cicadas on the side of a tree, being eating by ants, and I saw another one in a perpindicular postion trying to fight off a small ant that was many times smaller than it was, one of those pissants. But it was very interesting to observe, and I learned a lot.

They generally emerge right during or after a rain shower of some sort, when the ground is wet. There were actually a few nymphs that crawled up my legs, and I relocated them to the tree where they were supposed to be.

[foghorn]

You know, Flea, there's nothing better than a few nymphs crawling up one's legs.

[Gunner18]

im not even gonna touch that one foghorn, remember this is a public site so lets try to keep it PG!

[CRLionDawg]

I can remember the bugs 17 years ago in 1987. Ronald Reagan was still President. We had just won the cold war. The congress was full of liberal democrats. Mini vans were still a new concept. The Yankees were in the midst of a decade long drought. Larry Bird was still playing basketball. Tom Landry was nearing the end of his career.

Makes you wonder how things will be in 2021.

[fleaflicker]

It does make you wonder how things will be in 2021. If there are any fishermen on here, they make great fish bait, almost no matter how they are presented. Dad went cat fishing last evening, put one on and put it on the bottom, and about a minute later he had a fish on the line. Also, the noise they make is supposed to be at its loudest in early June, and there are still some nymphs emerging from the ground, as I found one earlier this evening. Anyways...