Cicadas raising the roof!

treitz3 · May 6

I don't know if they are prominent where you are but them little suckers are LOUD!

I can even hear them inside with the doors and windows shut, A/C running. They just started to emerge and make a ruckus about a week ago and they haven't even hit their peak yet.

Average 60dB noise floor outside right now. When you drive by a patch of them in the forest? I'm quite sure you raise up another 15dB.

Not many things in nature annoy me but these little buggers sure do. They are as constant as can be with their racket.

Another two weeks and they will finally STFU for another 13 years. Can't wait!

*rant over*

Tom

machone · May 6

Not down here in the low country but I remember one year when I lived in Northern Virginia they were so loud you could not here yourself talk. It was crazy!

tonyp063 · May 6

Kekekekekekek!
Zerg Rush!

from brood X in 2021 here

mrbigbluelight · May 6

Dogs unfortunately seem to like the smell of dead cicadas and think they're delicious to snack on.
Bad for them, real bad.

We had to shovel dead cicadas out of our cooling towers by the boatload in years past
Filled a lot of 50 gallon barrels and wow do they stink 👃😩🦨

Don't let your dogs eat 'em.
...same applies to you

treitz3 · May 6

machone wrote: »

Not down here in the low country but I remember one year when I lived in Northern Virginia they were so loud you could not here yourself talk. It was crazy!

That reminds me of one year (probably between '82 and '87) when the Cicadas came out in mass. I will say this. My Dad would drive his Oldsmobile down the road and all you heard was, "crunch". Like popcorn kernels popping in a kettle. It was so bad that hear that I couldn't even avoid them on my bike.

Think about that for a second. A bike. The tires were what? 3/4 inch thick (10 speed, not a BMX) and if I were playing Mario Brothers, I probably would have racked up 300K points just going about 1/2 a block.

I would estimate that at the peak of it? There were probably more than 4 or 5 per square foot on the road. Stunk like no other.

It was the only time in my 54 years on this big, blue marble I have ever seen anything like it. This was in N. Springfield, VA.

We are nowhere even remotely close to that down here in SC. I haven't even seen one on the road yet but it is memories like this that one never forgets. They were so packed up in N. VA, that about every 6 to 8", you would see the empty exuviae still clinging to the massive trees in the yard.

Come to think of it....I haven't even seen one exuviae yet anywhere down here. I guess they haven't gotten to that stage yet. They sure are noisey though.

Tom

mhardy6647 · May 6

I love 'em all, be they periodic or annual!
We don't get any of the periodic ones up here. We did see the brood X down in NoVA back in... umm... 2021 when we were visiting our son & daughter-in-law.

The periodic cicadas were also out when I graduated with my PhD in B-more back in May 1987, come to think of it. I took that as a good omen.

Down in the basement, I still have a couple of the nymphal exoskeletons that my father saw fit to give our then 3-year old daughter that day.

She wasn't particularly keen to keep them then (or now, for that matter).

machone · May 6

treitz3 wrote: »

machone wrote: »

Not down here in the low country but I remember one year when I lived in Northern Virginia they were so loud you could not here yourself talk. It was crazy!

That reminds me of one year (probably between '82 and '87) when the Cicadas came out in mass. I will say this. My Dad would drive his Oldsmobile down the road and all you heard was, "crunch". Like popcorn kernels popping in a kettle. It was so bad that hear that I couldn't even avoid them on my bike.

Think about that for a second. A bike. The tires were what? 3/4 inch thick (10 speed, not a BMX) and if I were playing Mario Brothers, I probably would have racked up 300K points just going about 1/2 a block.

I would estimate that at the peak of it? There were probably more than 4 or 5 per square foot on the road. Stunk like no other.

It was the only time in my 54 years on this big, blue marble I have ever seen anything like it. This was in N. Springfield, VA.

We are nowhere even remotely close to that down here in SC. I haven't even seen one on the road yet but it is memories like this that one never forgets. They were so packed up in N. VA, that about every 6 to 8", you would see the empty exuviae still clinging to the massive trees in the yard.

Come to think of it....I haven't even seen one exuviae yet anywhere down here. I guess they haven't gotten to that stage yet. They sure are noisey though.

Tom

I lived between Warrenton and Fredericksburg. This had to be in the late 80s.

treitz3 · May 6

What we would consider, "farm country" back then. Nice.

Tom

Jazzhead · May 6

I recall all those loud insects (more than just cicadas) when I lived down South. The jungles of Pitt County, NC... Tom, remember the kudzu bug outbreak in SC a few years ago (I was there visiting)? A little 20 below puts the hurt on them out here Idaho. No termites either for that matter.

xschop · May 7

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

Dogs unfortunately seem to like the smell of dead cicadas and think they're delicious to snack on.
Bad for them, real bad.

We had to shovel dead cicadas out of our cooling towers by the boatload in years past
Filled a lot of 50 gallon barrels and wow do they stink 👃😩🦨

Don't let your dogs eat 'em.
...same applies to you

But chitin is a yummy neurotoxin.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10094409/#:~:text=Some studies have shown that,substrate for glycan–protein interactions.

muncybob · May 7

Dang, now I have to find something else for supper today.

mrbigbluelight · May 7

Why do you insist on chitin in my cornflakes ? 🧐

VR3 · May 7

I need to record these things and then plant a wifi speaker in your house 😁

billbillw · May 7

They don't really come out around Atlanta. We get the later summer cicadas during the heat of the day, and of course, at night in June/July/August, we get the katydids, which people confuse with cicadas, but they are very different.