Brood 13

[gjl711]

It's cicada time, or at least all the smart guys predicted today would be the day the emerged. So, anyone in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana have their first brood 13 sighting?

http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/highlights/periodicalCicada.html

http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/michigan_cicadas/Periodical/BroodXIII.html

[AirBrontosaurus]

ARGH!!!!!!

These things are so gross. They land on everything, and then they die everywhere. When I mow the grass, I literally get splattered with bug goo the entire time. They're loud, annoying, and basically make me hate life.

Thank god we got our swarm a few years ago. I feel sorry for everyone else.

[steved110]

These things are apart of nature, and have a fascinating lifecycle - sure they make a lot of noise and wreak havoc with our own lives for a while, but it is wrong to insulate ourselves too much from the natural world.

Regarding mowing the lawn, I imagine chewed-up cicada trimmings make good fertiliser. If you wait a few days till they dry up or get eaten by natural scavengers, you won't get spattered.

Having said all that, about 12 years ago in South Wales we went to a beach near Bridge End, and the whole place was swarming with Lady Bugs - literally millions of them crunching underfoot, getting in your hair and ears and eyes and mouth - it was totally freaky. There is something primeval about not wanting insects too close...

[queenbee288]

The scary thing about insects is..There are more of them than there are of us.:lol:

[Moppie]

I think these things are fascinating.

We get Cicadas here, same shape and size, but very boring in colour.
They also follow a different life cycle, showing up every summer with out fail, fortunately in much smaller numbers :)

[gjl711]

I think these things are fascinating.

We get Cicadas here, same shape and size, but very boring in colour.
They also follow a different life cycle, showing up every summer with out fail, fortunately in much smaller numbers :)
We get them every year as well, but the numbers are small. You can hear them pretty much all summer long and might run into maybe a dozen or so shells and a couple of live ones throughout the summer. Then every 17 years the swarm. Last time we had several hundred covering our trees but then we are a new neighborhood or were then. Some of the older parts of town had the trees completely covered by maybe thousands or more. Anyway, I got my 100 macro all ready for the event. Big bugs = big pictures of big bugs. :)

[gjl711]

Anybody getting these critters yet? I have my 100mm all ready to go and now they are getting camera shy. ;)

[Sledhed]

I haven't seen any down by us yet.

BTW, I'm in Crete.

[cylentka]

Haven't seen any here in northern Indiana. I don't particularly like them, but I do find the lifecycle interesting. I hope the cats don't eat them. :p

[gjl711]

Haven't seen any here in northern Indiana. I don't particularly like them, but I do find the lifecycle interesting. I hope the cats don't eat them. :p
Last time they were out my dog went nuts. He tried to eat them but the grabbed his nose and hung on. That pretty much put an end to his trying to eat them. Course he is no longer with us and my current pup is just dumb enough to go after them and keep going after them. His learning curve is rather flat.;) :D