We had been warned that we would see cicadas this year in Middle Tennessee. (Maybe where you live, you call them locusts.)
Well, they have arrived with a vengeance. They are attached to our trees and plants and as you walk outside, you are likely to have to bat them away. They are harmless, but they are annoying. They are also noisy, like crickets, but amplified. And while we generally hear crickets and frogs at dusk or at night, the cicadas serenade us during the day.
I remember years ago, not long after we moved here and our children were young, we were told to expect the little creatures that periodically pay visits to the unsuspecting.
Our youngest was terrified, and cried as he anticipated their arrival.
Apparently, we are getting a double dose this year -- the ones that emerge every 13 years along with the ones that come around every 17 years.
They are looking for love, if you know what I mean. And I have no idea if the 17-year ones get together with the 13-year ones, or if they stay with their own kind.
There is plenty of information out there if you are interested.
I won't bore you with details, but I'll share a glimpse of life in my backyard these days. Look closely and you'll see a few flying around, and listen to the constant hum.
4 comments:
I can relate to this post, Bob!! In fact, you'll get to hear mine in a post tomorrow! Fortunately, we only have one brood here (XIX) and they're not so populous that I'm bothered by them.
I listened to a program not long ago saying that each of those groups, 13 and 17 year cicadas, are actually comprised of three or four different species each so there is something like 7 or 8 different species of cicadas coming out.
They have not yet emerged here and we are in the area of the map where they both groups are supposed to overlap. I am told by soil temperature predictors that perhaps next week. I'm enjoying sleeping with our bedroom window open at night while I can.
I haven't yet heard them here, but then I've been at the beach the last two weeks. I remember seeing a river of them in Utah once. They were being squished as they cross the interstate and the roadway was slippery.
I think it was the summer of 2021 that we had an unexpected cicada invasion. You could drive through town and hear the different swarms. We didn't have many in our neighborhood, but just across town (about a half mile away), friends had swarms in all their trees. It was truly fascinating, and gross, as they flew around and even landed on us.
It was some years before that we had an expected swarm, and those were much more docile. I remember going to a nature preserve to see them, and they just hung in the trees, staring down (or out, or wherever they look) with bulbous red eyes. It was a little freakish, but they didn't bother me as I walked around under the trees.
I don't know if we're supposed to have swarms here this year or not. I'll be listening...
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