Cicadas

Tadpui

Tadpui

Well-known member
Since I grew up in northeastern Oklahoma, I'm used to the same annual cicadas that we have here in northwestern Missouri (the Dog Day Cicada). They come around every summer, make some noise before dusk, and die off after a few weeks. They mainly stay up in the trees and don't bother anybody. I've got a thing with large flying insects, but the normal annual cicadas pretty much stick to themselves until they die and end up on the ground. So I'm OK with them. We have an uneasy truce.

But this year the 17-year Brood IV hatched, and I don't like these jerks at all. These things emerged in astounding numbers, they chirp and wheeze all day long, and now they've taken to swooping and dive-bombing from the trees from sun-up to sun-down. This is what my nightmares are made of. Large, winged insects in untold numbers flying about haphazardly all day long. These things suck. No friggin way am I going outside until they've died off. It's like a plague! Only a couple more weeks to go until they die off. It can't come soon enough.

But the dog seems to think that they make tasty snacks. I'm saving a bundle on dog food lately...

Do any of you live in cicada territory?
 
I used to hear them quite a bit when we had a place in Vermont. They'd just hand around in the trees though. Don't think I ever saw one! Mosquitoes were the real pests but they only came out after dark mostly. God help you if you got caught outdoors without long pants and a jacket after dark! :D



Cheers! :)
 
I used to live in Bethesda, MD. I loved the sound of insects outside. A friend's parents of mine had a cottage out in the woods and we'd go there occasionally when I was a little poo. I miss that part of the USA a lot. Cicada sounds and all. They belong!

And yes, they are crunchy and totally edible.
 
The thought of eating an insect makes me want to barf! With the little wings and legs and all...blech!

But if it sounds tasty, there are millions upon millions of them here right now. Come 'n get it!

Honestly I don't mind the regular annual cicadas. I've heard their song every summer since I was born. It's just weird when one of these other broods pushes them out of the way for a season. Different song, different behavior. And holy cow, larger numbers!

Usually we have these:

dogdaycicadaside2011small (2).jpg

And this year it's these:

-7ff5ea0ae752896b (2).JPG
 
Holy shit! Those look nasty... I, much like you, have a long standing hatred of anything that flies - especially if it bites/stings/annoyingly lands on the nape of your neck when you least expect it and sends you into the "roach dance" flailing your arms and letting them scrape whatever god-awful creature has decided to attack off of your neck... :laughings:

If one of those fuckers landed on me I would stroke out... And the red, beady eyes! Ugh!
 
We get lots around here for a month or two during our summer...though they look a bit different than the ones in those photos (more brownie-green).

Every night just after sunset we get a loud serenade with the cicadas doing the high notes and tree frogs chipping in with the bass rhythm.

A few months back I shoved a mic out our patio door and got this serenade. (I don't think it's quite ready for the MP3 mixing clinic though).

The keen eared among you will also notice our cat crashing about in the bushes.

CICADAS AND FROGS IN QUEENSLAND
 
pikingrin said:
Holy shit! Those look nasty... I, much like you, have a long standing hatred of anything that flies - especially if it bites/stings/annoyingly lands on the nape of your neck when you least expect it and sends you into the "roach dance" flailing your arms and letting them scrape whatever god-awful creature has decided to attack off of your neck... :laughings:

If one of those fuckers landed on me I would stroke out... And the red, beady eyes! Ugh!
Click to expand...

Haha! I know exactly what you mean...I'm squeamish about flying insects. And you're right, those red eyes make them look like they're made of concentrated evil. The fact that they're about an inch and a half long doesn't help.
 
Bobbsy said:
We get lots around here for a month or two during our summer...though they look a bit different than the ones in those photos (more brownie-green).

Every night just after sunset we get a loud serenade with the cicadas doing the high notes and tree frogs chipping in with the bass rhythm.

A few months back I shoved a mic out our patio door and got this serenade. (I don't think it's quite ready for the MP3 mixing clinic though).

The keen eared among you will also notice our cat crashing about in the bushes.

CICADAS AND FROGS IN QUEENSLAND
Click to expand...

That actually sounds pretty familiar! The tree frogs around my house sing a different song, and the cicadas sound a little different as well. But that sounds a lot like summer around here.

You might want to have somebody look into your bush cat infestation though, I hear that those can get out of control in a hurry :D
 
Bobbsy said:
We get lots around here for a month or two during our summer...though they look a bit different than the ones in those photos (more brownie-green).

Every night just after sunset we get a loud serenade with the cicadas doing the high notes and tree frogs chipping in with the bass rhythm.

A few months back I shoved a mic out our patio door and got this serenade. (I don't think it's quite ready for the MP3 mixing clinic though).

The keen eared among you will also notice our cat crashing about in the bushes.

CICADAS AND FROGS IN QUEENSLAND
Click to expand...
See, there's the catch 22. It sounds nice, sure. But when they - meaning the cicadas, or whatever other flying beast it could be - start dive bombing then it kind of puts a damper on the beauty of that part of nature. I've got tree frogs where I'm at, too, had one drop on me from the top of the screen door frame not too long ago and haven't trusted them since. :D
 
Dobro had a Cicadas post about 10 years ago when he was living somewhere in Asia...It was pretty funny he wasn't getting much sleep.
 
We don't have a dive bombing problem per se. What drives us crazy is that, as they get to the end of their lives, they do their best to come in the house to perch somewhere high. They hang in there for anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days, then fall down.

It's fun watching the cat watch them and try to work out how to catch a flying insect though...

ETA...I have sympathy with Dobro. Between the cicadas in the evening and the tropical birds that start up at sunrise every day, it gets pretty noisy around here. Thick curtains and an air conditioner providing a sort of white noise are our solutions.
 
Here in Virginia we get the 17-year ones. It's funny. I remember playing with them on the playground when I was 5, and then the other summer when I was 22 they were back again. Crazy how they wait so long.
 
pikingrin said:
have a long standing hatred of anything that flies - especially if it bites/stings/annoyingly lands on the nape of your neck when you least expect it and sends you into the "roach dance" flailing your arms and letting them scrape whatever god-awful creature has decided to attack off of your neck... :laughings:

If one of those fuckers landed on me I would stroke out... And the red, beady eyes! Ugh!
Click to expand...


just for you :D

pic_034_clean_638.jpg

Creepy-bug-in-head.gif


/runs
 
TAE said:
Dobro had a Cicadas post about 10 years ago when he was living somewhere in Asia...It was pretty funny he wasn't getting much sleep.
Click to expand...

I didn't care about the sleep. But I recorded in a room that was more or less open to the jungle noise outside. It provided a sort of after hours jungle backdrop for all the songs I was recording at that time. I like it. But when the cicada (there was just one maverick cicada) started up, it wrecked every recording. It was too damn loud. I went out and found it.
 
That's the cover version David. Originally written, performed and recorded by the XL Capris, (the gorgeous drummer of whom ran off with the singer from the Vapors). They also did a recording of a cover - Tommy Leonetti's My City Of Sydney, (he was the OTHER Don lane - a septic that made it big- ish- in Oz).
Bobbsy,
are you sure it's a from & not a cane toad? Nice recording by the way - sounds like my neck of the woods except the cicadas would drown out the frogs, trucks, trains and my heart beat there are so many in the BIG trees that surround my place.
 
Just heard them last week when I was taking my mom home to Western Indiana. Really loud, but haven't heard them this far East in Northern Kentucky.

All you motorcycle riders, if you are riding through the parts where they are coming out, a helmet is recommended. These guys can hurt going 60 and you run into one. Just sayin'.
 
I don't think much about them. I live way out in the sticks and they are in droves out here this year. They are loud at night but there are so many other loud critters at night the locusts just have to be part of the serenade instead of being the whole serenade
 
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