Cicada Experience?

OnlyMe · #1 05/06/13, 10:42 PM

According to news reports, my area may be hit with this year's "Cicada Invasion".

I can't recall having been through one of these but as a kid did experience the gypsy moth invasion - that was rather gross and many trees were damaged. I'm now in the woods and am unsure what to expect.

Is anyone familiar with cicadas who can provide me with information regarding how to prepare for something like this?

Thanks so much!

Ok, I did find this - we're going to have some really tall grass.....
If you’re naturally afraid of bugs, don’t go mow the lawn during the height of emergence. According to CicadaMania, this will make you extremely attractive. “Cicadas think the sounds made by power tools and lawn maintenance equipment are made by cicadas,” the site warns. “They get confused and will land on the people using the equipment!”

GrannyG · #2 05/06/13, 11:03 PM

I love them...they are ugly bugs but they know how to sing....LOL.....they usually keep to themselves around here in the trees or you will find the skeleton of one that has hatched out....think of how many years they stay underground....then come forth, and then they are gone....if you pick one up, they really turn that singing noise up....I enjoy the Cicada season...summer is here...

soulsurvivor · #3 05/06/13, 11:07 PM

I'm not certain you can prepare for it. I recall back in the 90s that DH and I had a lovely crop of sweet corn in the garden. It was almost ready for harvest and out of the blue we had a June bug invasion of biblical proportions, and I'm not exaggerating. DH sprayed and dusted every chemical he could on them. By the time all was said and done, a few days/nights, we had no sweet corn left and a mighty stink from an amount of June bugs carcasses that measured 3 feet in depth the entire length of the corn rows.

It was the same year that everyone was being hit hard with the Japanese beetle invasion. But we never had one Japanese beetle.

salmonslayer · #4 05/07/13, 02:23 AM

Well, June bugs are a whole other critter from cicadas. We had our 15 years hatch around here two years ago and we had never been through it before and it was pretty awesome. They were everywhere and our cicadas screamed when you disturbed them.....as in I could shake a bush and there were a hundred cicadas flying off in every direction screaming like from a horror show.

They hung around for about a month or so and then poof...all gone except for the shells. I have to admit they were unnerving at first but we studied up on them and it turned out to be a very cool thing to have experienced. We did cover some young fruit trees and bushes with netting because we heard they liked to munch on new growth but we didnt have much in the way of damage.

Whisperwindkat · #5 05/07/13, 04:10 AM

They were pretty cool and can sing. Oh my goodness they were loud and they were everywhere, but didn't cause any damage. They were a little freaky though when I was working in the garden and they were all over the place.

Rockytopsis · #6 05/07/13, 05:15 AM

DH was not familiar with cicadas when we were dating and one year they were very very loud and him having to use hearing aids the noise was very annoying to him.

We were setting on his porch one day and I saw one hatch and stretch its wings and knew that it would fly off at any moment talked him into going over and looking at it. I was just flexing wings and I told him to pick it up by the wings and him trusting me did so.

That bug let out a scream that would have put a banchee to shame and he must have cleared the ground by about 2 feet when he jumped and I am on the porch just rolling with laughter and he is standing there shouting a few choice words at me.

I love telling that story, it was about 19 years ago and I can still picture it.

Nancy

mountainlaurel · #7 05/07/13, 05:23 AM

We will be having the 17 year hatch this year here. From past experiences, they are extremely loud and you see more but it only last for a few weeks and then you start finding discarded shells.
They do no damage. There are cicada's here every year. But this is brood II, I think that's correct but don't quote me, and there is basically just more of them for a while. I think it is about 6 weeks of mating and death for the little boogers. As soon as the ground reaches 64 degrees, they should appear.
I love the sound of cicada's but this is a little more than that

HOTW · #8 05/07/13, 05:34 AM

I remember the one on th e90's very loud. We stayed out from under the trees cause al you heard was singing and pooping. Lots of noise. Kids found th ebugs fascinating.

coup · #9 05/07/13, 05:35 AM

don't tell everyone but they are the best bass bait ever............

foxtrapper · #10 05/07/13, 07:04 AM

Drive with caution through areas heavy with them, the ground is often slippery.

Accept the noise, and enjoy it for the deafening racket it is. It's fascinating.

Try eating them. I find them tender and tasty in the white emergent stage. Very similar to asperagus.

mamahen · #11 05/07/13, 08:25 AM

We had a hatch when my son was 6 (so 12 yrs ago). We had a new batch of pullets and he caught a gallon zip lock bag every day to feed them.....They thrived on the extra protein and started laying at 3 months!

So anyone that has chickens - get them ready!

wildcat6 · #12 05/07/13, 08:49 AM

They make great fishing bait!

DarleneJ · #13 05/07/13, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxtrapper

Try eating them. I find them tender and tasty in the white emergent stage. Very similar to asperagus.

No way. ...Really?

MelonBar · #14 05/07/13, 09:09 AM

I wonder if it will be as bad as that Leonid meteor shower was this year.

foxtrapper · #15 05/07/13, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarleneJ

No way. ...Really?

Really. Very similar to asperagus. Hardest part is the psychological aspect of eating bugs. Big bugs. Even my tummy tends to get twitchy after a few.

DarleneJ · #16 05/07/13, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxtrapper

Really. Very similar to asperagus. Hardest part is the psychological aspect of eating bugs. Big bugs. Even my tummy tends to get twitchy after a few.

If my tummy started twitching, no doubt I would be hurling very shortly. A complete waste of a good cicada. But I guess that's a factoid to keep tucked in my survival memory bank.

In the meantime, I think I would like to feed them to my chickens.

Bearfootfarm · #17 05/07/13, 03:58 PM

Quote:

According to news reports, my area may be hit with this year's "Cicada Invasion". Cicada Experience? - Countryside Families

They hatch every year, and the same headlines are repeated every year.
Some years tend to have more, but it's not a "once every 17 year" event as some like to imply.

It's just Springtime fill-in on slow news days

mmoetc · #18 05/07/13, 05:42 PM

[QUOTE=Bearfootfarm;6579707]They hatch every year, and the same headlines are repeated every year.
Some years tend to have more, but it's not a "once every 17 year" event as some like to imply.

It's just Springtime fill-in on slow news days[/

Depending on your locale it is a once in 17 or once in 13 year event for the big brood hatches. I believe there are 15 of the 17 year broods and 5 of the 13 year broods. One theory is that the mass hatching and breeding is a survival mechanism as no predators can reduce the population enough to endanger what most of nature considers a very tasty treat. We don't have any large brood hatches here but I remember them from a couple of years in my youth. Unnerving and loud but really cool.

Danaus29 · #19 05/07/13, 08:16 PM

There are 2 types of cicadas, periodical and annual. The annual do emerge every year. Periodical will emerge every 13 or 17 years (depending on location and brood) and are the ones that emerge in huge numbers. I've only seen one huge emergence in my life. It was amazing (from an insect lovers viewpoint) because there were little tunnels where they emerged from the ground and they were in such large numbers that we were able to capture and photograph several emerging from their nymph stage. In central Ohio in 2004 they were so bad they disrupted the Muirfield golf tournament.

Probably more than you ever want to know about cicadas;
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/steincarter/cicadas.htm

salmonslayer · #20 05/07/13, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danaus29

There are 2 types of cicadas, periodical and annual. The annual do emerge every year. Periodical will emerge every 13 or 17 years (depending on location and brood) and are the ones that emerge in huge numbers. I've only seen one huge emergence in my life. It was amazing (from an insect lovers viewpoint) because there were little tunnels where they emerged from the ground and they were in such large numbers that we were able to capture and photograph several emerging from their nymph stage. In central Ohio in 2004 they were so bad they disrupted the Muirfield golf tournament.

Probably more than you ever want to know about cicadas;
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/steincarter/cicadas.htm

Yes, lots of people dont understand there are two types and until I experienced it myself I mostly thought people who described it had gone daft. They get called Locusts around here even though they arent locusts.