Brood X is Coming!

[wdfifteen]

Just started noticing the cicada holes today. This is under some shrubs near my house, and it's nothing compared to the density of holes out in the woods. The holes are about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. The cicadas are still waiting down inside for a nice warm day to come out and have their buggy little orgy.
The last time the cicadas swarmed was 2004, but I have no recollection of it.

[kach22i]

May 29, 2013
By Bon Appétit
How to Cook Cicadas, According to 3 Richmond, Va., Chefs
https://www.bonappetit.com/uncategorized/article/how-to-cook-cicadas-according-to-3-richmond-va-chefs

[masraum]

I'm bummed that we don't get this experience down here.

[john70t]

A couple days ago found something big that looked like a cicada grub.

[ckelly78z]

My free range chickens won't need fed while they are here...it will be fun watching the carnage !

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by masraum

I'm bummed that we don't get this experience down here.

Imagine a constant, pulsating mid frequency hum that goes on all night at around 90-100 decibels. That's what you're missing out on.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

My free range chickens won't need fed while they are here...it will be fun watching the carnage !

We have a pole 30-40' from the house with a mercury vapor light. If I have that on at night, it attracts beetles, moths, etc... by the hundreds or maybe thousands. I've seen an opossum out there at 930 or 10pm wandering around under the light enjoying the smorgasbord of insects that land on the ground underneath. It's pretty entertaining to watch. He really tucks into each little morsel.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Imagine a constant, pulsating mid frequency hum that goes on all night at around 90-100 decibels. That's what you're missing out on.

Yep, I think my parents lived in NoVA for one back in the late 80s or early 90s. They said that they couldn't walk from the door to the car without stepping on them. I think we had something similar when we lived in northern Japan. Some years the sound was practically a roar.

[LEAKYSEALS951]

Originally Posted by kach22i

May 29, 2013
By Bon Appétit
How to Cook Cicadas, According to 3 Richmond, Va., Chefs
https://www.bonappetit.com/uncategorized/article/how-to-cook-cicadas-according-to-3-richmond-va-chefs

My wife asked me for dinner suggestions this morning. We've spent some time eating at these Richmond eateries. Not that we are in brood x territory, but she doesn't know that.
I forwarded her your link.

[GH85Carrera]

We have cicadas every year. Not an massive invasion like the NE areas. Out dogs think Cicadas are the best snack in the world. They can hunt for them, and dead or alive, they are snarfed down. Our male dachshund, Reuben goes on the hunt every evening once they start coming out of the ground. We would have to put him on a diet if we had a mass appearance of cicadas.

In Oklahoma it is just part of the sounds of summer. Usually about the time it gets hot.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by masraum

I'm bummed that we don't get this experience

We do. Map is wrong

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by red-beard

We do. Map is wrong

The map is conservative to say the very least.

Most of the lower peninsula of Michigan is host to these amazing critters.

Maybe not at the density levels further south, but we get our share.

Now about those tiny tiny black ants that just showed up on my kitchen counter this morning, the size of fleas. Where did they come from? I've never seen them before.

Spring came 2 months early this year, been quite warm although we just got an inch of snow covering the green grass and budding trees.

I'm assuming folks in Ohio and Indiana know about these ants, they must be marching north as the climate changes.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by red-beard

We do. Map is wrong

You're saying that we get "brood X" or just cicadas?

Yes, we get cicadas, but the theory is that we don't get the crazy mass broods like places farther north.

[JackDidley]

I am also in the X zone. Last time I remember sitting in the car next to a brick wall at the drive up window. The sound bouncing off the brick wall was insane. At the time I had lots of them in my yard and also had cicada killing wasps. It was interesting to watch the wasps dragging the cicadas back to the nest. Have not seen the wasps or the cicadas for a few years. Will see what happens when the weather warms up.

[pmax]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Just started noticing the cicada holes today. This is under some shrubs near my house, and it's nothing compared to the density of holes out in the woods. The holes are about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. The cicadas are still waiting down inside for a nice warm day to come out and have their buggy little orgy.
The last time the cicadas swarmed was 2004, but I have no recollection of it.

Hear any screaming ?

[wdfifteen]

The cicadas are out in force now. It's like something out of a horror movie. Once they come out of the ground and shed their shells they take off flying randomly until they hit something to grab onto. Every surface has cicadas stuck to it. The house, my truck, all the plants, fences - everything. For the past two days every blade of grass on the lawn under a tree has one or two cicadas clinging to it, waiting to take off. We can't walk out of the house without getting hit in the face, and we always find them clinging to our clothes. The dogs love them, but eating too many is supposedly not good for them, so we have to watch the dogs all the time.
People complain about the sound, but that's not as bad as the sheer numbers of them clinging to everything. Every wooded area emits a sound like a low pitched football stadium roar. Once you get close to them it sounds like tinnitus, which I'm used to, so no big deal. They are loudest during the hottest part of the day and go quiet by dark. This is supposed to go on for 5 to 6 weeks.






These are the shells of the nymphs which crawl out of the ground.

[vash]

are the bug eating animals just having a field day? birds? possums?

i'm not scared of bugs, but too much of anything freaks me out a tiny bit.

[IROC]

We are in the height of it now in East TN. These are different than typical cicadas as the sound is a weird "hum" and not the standard cicada racket.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

The cicadas are out in force now. It's like something out of a horror movie. Once they come out of the ground and shed their shells they take off flying randomly until they hit something to grab onto. Every surface has cicadas stuck to it. The house, my truck, all the plants, fences - everything. For the past two days every blade of grass on the lawn under a tree has one or two cicadas clinging to it, waiting to take off. We can't walk out of the house without getting hit in the face, and we always find them clinging to our clothes. The dogs love them, but eating too many is supposedly not good for them, so we have to watch the dogs all the time.
People complain about the sound, but that's not as bad as the sheer numbers of them clinging to everything. Every wooded area emits a sound like a low pitched football stadium roar. Once you get close to them it sounds like tinnitus, which I'm used to, so no big deal. They are loudest during the hottest part of the day and go quiet by dark. This is supposed to go on for 5 to 6 weeks.






These are the shells of the nymphs which crawl out of the ground.

I've seen cicadas all of my life. I've never experienced "the big one" like you're seeing up there.

I don't think I've seen a single cicada yet this year.

When I was a teen and lived in northern Japan, I think one year we had a small brood pop out. There were a lot of them and they seemed much louder than usual, but nothing like what you show in the photos above.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by vash

are the bug eating animals just having a field day? birds? possums?

i'm not scared of bugs, but too much of anything freaks me out a tiny bit.

I hear that snakes love them too.