America hit by storm of insects

A swarm of cicadas has emerged after 17 years underground in the eastern US.
Trillions of the insects will blanket the landscape in a frenzy of breeding, before dying en masse in June.

The bugs, which have the longest known adult-to-adult cycle, will have to contend with a more developed world than the one they left behind in 1987.

Some scientists say urbanisation is endangering periodical cicadas: at least one population is already extinct and others are at risk, they say.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3725927.stm

If a Democrat was in office, this would be a "sign".

The repugs can still blame it on Clinton.

infested with two-legged cockroaches lately.

Where is that Bug Spray picture?

One species I would not mind seeing dissapear (at least from my neighborhoods).

are nesting there....so you know aside from the graves that have been dug since then that they are safe there....

imagine if you will..a skittish teenager going to visit her dad's grave only to see millions of these ghastly insects swarming about all over the place....in a cemetery....double ick.

the fact that they're still coming back is a sign that the local environment is still in good shape.

but I haven't seen very many.

I hope it's not a bad sign. :(

I hate to wish too hard, however. 10 million of them could be a little hard to take. :crazy:

I'm in the Alexandria area and I've actually been looking forward to seeing the little buggers (I remember them as a child) but I haven't seen or heard any yet.

this year, it's brood No.10 that's emerging...hrer's the map of the distribution of that brood:



I'm in chicago, and we're expecting brood 13 to pop out again in 2007:



to find out what brood you can expect and when:
http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~biodiv/Cicada_Project/list.html

It's hard to tell from the map though. It's possible we would get them.

I've heard there are more cicadas out about 20 miles east of here. I guess if they are that "spotty" - we may not get many.

I remember them the last time round...and they are disgusting....
ick...

xxx

You just wait and see.

Jesus is angry :)

frogs prefer to take baths.

hang on kids... it's going to be a rough ride. ;-)

The sound was enough to drive you crazy! It sounds like a loud electric motor under stress droning on and on.

And to tell the truth, it was really pretty cool! Cheep on, you hideous red-eyed critters!!!

well. I didn't like the 17-year variety, simply because there were so damned many of them, but I miss the sound of the cicadas on a peaceful summer night--the rising and falling cadence of them.

You had to almost shout to be heard.

I like cicadas, and the brood X phenomenon is a VERY cool natural event, IMO. I've lived in the east during two brood X emergences-- absolutely awesome!

hot nights and cicadas --memories of my childhood.

When I was a child I loved hearing that sound at night.

I haven't experienced this 17 yr cicada thing before though...so far we haven't seen any in NC.


KC

:hi:

and found themselves under a Walmart asphalt parking lot in 2004 :(

I hadn't thought about that!

KC

wow, there's a few of us around

Just one big orgy party.

"While they were preparing for their month of glory, their habitats have been paved over by parking lots, enormous shopping malls and large tracts of homes."
But Rush says we have more trees now than when the pilgrims first landed, more wildlife also and everyone knows he only tells the absolute truth.

The sound depressed me.....along with the extreme oppresive heat of summer visits to Texas.

with earplugs in, from at least one state away.

enough earplugs small enough to fit them?

They were around every year. I liked them. We used to collect the discarded skins that would be found empty clinging to trees and the sides of houses. Finding one emerging was very cool and all the kids would call each other and watch. They certainly are noisy, and I can not imagine what the 17 year emergence must be like. But remember that thye are harmless. They have no defenses beyond a piecring scream when disturbed. They do not bite or sting. They can't even feed as winged adults. Avoid them, let them do their jobs. They are a natural treasure. Of a sort.

On edit, grab the kids, find some discarded skin casings, paint them and assemble them in fun historical poses and take pictures.

We used to love to collect the skins and hang them from the screen door. Ahh, the memories!

to take out a wiffle ball bat and a tennis racket and introduce the little helpless bug's head to his a$$hole :)

this year, i'm 2000 miles away in seattle.

no cicadas, no cockroaches, no humidity, no bush pioneers.

the Lord is angry at America for allowing gay marriages in Massachusetts (hope I spelled that right)

and some expert pointed out that this year's brood is different in such that there's a 'w' on the wings. even showed it, and sure enough there was a distinct 'w' on the wing. freeky. i'm surprised more hasn't been made of it.

who it is that the Lord is pissed at.

Ha!

Or are they just libruls out to destroy our way of life?

Whatever they are, let's blame this on Bill Clinton!

And there was literally a carpet of insects everywhere you walked *crunch crunch crunch*...It was incredible, I'll never forget it!

...and the sound was amazing!

I'm not sure I'm ready for this!


KC

Eisenhower....Nixon....Bush,the smarter....Bush, the dumber..

Coincidence???

Reagan did not have them, but then he was really a democrat who "converted" to republicanism for profit..and was he really running the show, anyway???

...But there are certainly enough of them to make the entire 'hood sound like a giant Star Trek phaser. Seems they don't like the trees in my lawn, so they've been mainly just hatching and hitting the road for the park down the street. Everything eats them--every kind of bird, the squirrels, the neighbor's cat, and probably a few of my human neighbors, too.

www.urhome.umd.edu/newsdesk/pdf/cicada%20recipes.PDF

They're perfectly harmless. As far as I can tell, the things don't even have mouths in their adult stage. Once they're in the flying stage, they seem to be here for only two things, hootin' and scroggin'. It's impossible for me not to like them.

One really interesting thing that appears to have happened is that they've excited the regular (annual) population of similar critters, which look a lot like cicadas only they're bigger, green, and make that loud raspy creaking noise that Ken Burns used in his Civil War series. It seems like they're trying to creak louder than the Brood X cicadas. The result is quite a racket, which competes pretty well with the traffic, fire engines, and jet planes.

The cicadas really do sport a "W" on the wing.

Reminds me of three years ago when this entire town was crawling with cowboy-hatted Texans, who all came out at the same time for the inauguration. Unfortunately, those "W" fans never left.

CHUPACABRA!

it's not really summer until the cicadas come out. I find the sound very comforting; I know all is right with the world if it's July, the heat is oppressive, and the cicadas are thrumming madly around me.

When reprehensor first moved down from Canada it was May, and he still had much to learn about being a gen-U-wine Texan. The first time he heard a cicada, I about peed my pants laughing.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!!??"

I had to comfort him and tell him it was only a ugly bug, and "Get used to it!"

FSC

Web Video: What Does John Kerry Have In Common With The Cicadas?

The RNC today sent a new web video to more than 700,000 Team Leaders, pointing out that John Kerry has a few things in common with the cicadas.
http://www.rnc.org

<< just happened across it today while searching.
What do you think it means?

edit: I did just watch it. Very weird.