17 year wannabe locusts

Ms Ann Thrope said:
cool pix, Sharky! :D

I love the sound of crickets... true music...

but the sawing of cicadas makes me agitated... :eh:
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Ahh, yes . . . sitting on the front porch at night . . . candlelight . . . glass of wine . . . Bob James playing softly on the stereo in the house . . . crickets and tree frogs chirping in the background. Look! There goes a raccoon ambling across the yard in the moonlight . . .
 
Sharky said:
I think cicadas are actually the insect to which Squiggy and I were referring . . . technically, a locust is a big grasshopper.

Cicada shell:
cicada-shell.jpg
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cicadas are the ones making their appearence this year...no? The shells we'ld find were much clearer than the one pictured.
 
Squiggy said:
cicadas are the ones making their appearence this year...no? The shells we'ld find were much clearer than the one pictured.
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Yup.

Some shells are clear, some are brown. I wonder if the type of soil the cicada dug out of has anything to do with it?

Anyway . . .

Americans bracing for cicada swarm after 17-year absence

Thu May 13, 1:17 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Americans are bracing themselves as billions of locust-like insects known as cicadas begin to emerge from a 17-year slumber underground to swarm several US states for the next few weeks.

Americans from Maryland to Indiana will have to fend off clouds of cicadas, insects with transparent wings, black bodies and red eyes which dig themselves out of the ground every 17 years to mate before dying.

The insects, which make a deafening buzzing sound as they reproduce, have begun to emerge in massive numbers.

Late Monday in Bloomington, Indiana, "cicadas started emerging from the ground by billions," Keith Clay, a professor of biology at Indiana University, said in a news conference here Tuesday.

"They are highly synchronized to come out together," he said.

"There is definitely a strong fear factor among some people with this emergence of periodical cicadas," Clay said, joking that it was reminiscent of Alfred Hitchkock's thriller "The Birds" in which the animals inexplicably begin attacking people.

But scientists have assured the deeply bug-averse that the cicadas are harmless insects solely interested in mating and laying their eggs for the next three weeks only to vanish again until 2021.

Cicadas "don't bite, and they don't attack people," Clay said.

But while scientists are looking forward to this intriguing event, many Americans are dreading the swarm that will cover cars with squashed cicada carcasses, drive pets wild as they gorge themselves on the insects and give outdoors activities a distinctly wilder edge.

The states of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio are expected to have the highest density of cicadas. They also appear in Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee, New Jersey, Missouri, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. They have also begun to appear in the US capital.

"Except for one or two little spots in Canada, they are found only in the United States, nowhere else in the world," Clay said.

Despite their large numbers -- there could be trillions of them in Indiana alone -- the cicadas usually cause little damage to trees and smaller plants.

While some orchards will be affected, Clay is not predicting a disaster.

Any damage caused by the cicadas happens when the females use a razor-sharp appendage to slice branches and twigs open so they can insert their fertilized eggs.

The eggs, about the size of a grain of rice, hatch about four weeks later -- in early June -- just as the cicadas reach the end of their life cycles. The larvae then drop and burrow into the ground with help from their front legs searching for roots.

Scientists are interested in studying the insects' impact on forests.

"It is a rare opportunity to examine the ecological consequences" of this phenomenon, Clay said.

The cicadas contribute to soil aeration, and their presence is a sign of good environmental health, specialists say. But why the insects appear only every 17 years remains a mystery.
 
Leslie said:
Winky:

Raid is a carcinogen AND a nerve gas

:confbang:
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Yup it contains Propoxur which is a Cholinesterase Inhibitor
This chemical is classified acutely toxic.
 
Well, I wouldn't expect something marketed as a poison to be something I should be inhaling.
 
Pediatrician warns parents about cicadas
Excitement, fear can lead to injuries among children
Several children fell off bikes, Baker said. “We had a concussion, a 9-year-old who was fleeing a cicada on her bicycle and fell off,” he said.

Another child hit his head on a brick wall while he was running away from one of the insects.

“We had a stab wound to the arm from a kid who was trying to kill a cicada on the arm of another child but unfortunately he was using a knife,” Baker added.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4980203/
 
In southern Indiana we are suposed to get 1 ton of cicadas per acre....1.5 million of these things per acre! I am in Dallas until next friday, I kinda want to be around for when it happens...I hope the ground temperature stays low for a little bit.

Bloomington said:
Here come the cicadas
After 17 years underground, insects to emerge in force this week
By Laura Lane, Herald Times
May 9, 2004

BLOOMINGTON

Early on the morning of April 29, Indiana University botanist Roger Hangarter saw a big bug flying outside a Jordan Hall window. He ran out, captured the insect in his hand and carried it back inside.

In a hallway, he encountered biology professor Keith Clay, who is studying the emergence of Brood X cicadas and their effect on forests.

"Hold out your hand," Hangarter said.

Clay held out his hand. His colleague dropped the insect onto his open palm.

"It has begun," Hangarter said.

"Uh oh," Clay responded.

He wasn't ready. Still isn't.

"That particular one was not a harbinger. It came out too early," said Clay, who has since moved up the cicadas' expected arrival date from May 25 to sometime this week. "My research applications are not ready yet. I was happy when temperatures got into the 30s last week, which gave us more time."

Then the weather warmed up, and Clay realized the cicadas will emerge early this year. "I'm certain. They will be out next week," he said Thursday.

Periodical cicadas, the world's longest-living insects, are climbing up from holes in the ground where they have been living the past 17 years, ever since they fell from tender tree limbs as nymphs after hatching from eggs laid by their mothers.

This week, they are expected to show themselves in great numbers. "Once they emerge, they will climb up anything vertical, shed their skins and then go up into trees. The males will begin calling and looking for mates," said Purdue University entomologist Tim Gibb. "They will be around for about two months."

He and others who study insects are fascinated by the internal clock that makes the insects' arrival predictable. "If this species missed the emergence by two weeks, it would miss its chance to mate and extinction could result," Gibb said.

Eggs hatch six weeks after being laid. The female cicada cuts into twigs smaller than the diameter of a person's little finger and deposits them beneath the thin bark. Young trees are the only vegetation susceptible to cicada damage; property owners can cover them with netting or cheesecloth for protection.

"They will have minimal impact on trees and shrubs," said Purdue entomology professor Cliff Sadof, who urges people not to use insecticides to lessen the impact of the cicadas. "I suggest you enjoy the cicadas while they are here."

And know that the black- bodied, orange-winged, red-eyed insects may well be flying around everywhere, possibly running into things. They shed their exoskeletons, and the crusty shells will litter the ground.

Southern Indiana is the Brood X cicada epicenter, Clay said. "Expect extraordinary density, about one ton per acre," he said. "That exceeds any animal ever documented. That is about 1.5 million cicadas per acre." The most dense areas will be in thick forests in Brown County and around Lake Monroe.

He said that by being beneath the ground feeding on tree root sap for 17 years, the most damage caused by cicadas is the strain they cause in tree growth. The year the cicadas surface, trees experience a lot of growth, Clay said.

"They are parasites that strain tree growth and restrict it during the 17 years underground," he said.

Female cicadas will look for younger trees — they prefer elm and detest persimmon — in which to lay their eggs. "From where they lay them, you will know where they will be coming up in 17 years," Clay said.

He and 25 students who will help track the cicadas over the next two months are busy day and night preparing. "I am looking forward to it," Clay said. "And there is no need to worry."
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What? I don't get it... Wheres this happenning? Is it in a particular state or just across america in general? :confused:
 
Spunky said:
What? I don't get it... Wheres this happenning? Is it in a particular state or just across america in general? :confused:
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Apparently it's mostly in the North Eastern US, but we have locusts here in Oklahoma as well. Perhaps our mass emergence won't be as bad? *hopes so*
 
Ah ok, thx rose :)

So no nasty buggy wuggies to worry about round here then! woohoo!

Thats all i need right now. Having a bit of a personal crisis and would appreciate some help! PM'S Only though...
 
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