Sunday, September 27, 2009

The Critters from Seventeen Years Ago

Cicada Invasion!

Cicadas, that is. There must have been some pretty good breeding conditions here seventeen years ago, because the creatures have been present and singing for quite some time. If you're entomophobic even a little (as I apparently am), stumbling upon one of these huge, yet mostly inoffensive critters will give you pause for sure. The husks they leave behind on some fencepost will decay to nothing before the grip lets go. The super sized bugs aren't all that great looking, IMHO, but the wings are bejeweled and iridescent when the light hits right.

Messing around looking on YouTube for the typical sound we hear 'round here - man, some of those species sound pretty harsh. Watching Ghost Busters the other day reminded me of how our variety sounds - the ambulance with it's varying pitch really does mimic the mating call we hear. If it's calm, the song really carries. Plus, they drown out the grasshoppers - definitely an unloved and unwelcome sector of nature in these here parts.

But, the song is diminished with the lowering temperatures, and it will be another seventeen years before the young 'uns from this crop surface to sing to us again. Luckily, apparently there are seventeen separate generations carrying on the cycle.

Roberta X made me think about bugs

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