Cicadastock '04

[korme]

Ugh, I hate the damn things, 12 were found today locally, all eaten by a chipmunk apparently. I am not looking forward to them.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Only 12 in the whole city? And one chipmunk ate all of them? Has the chipmunk been reached for comment?

[korme]

no i didn't hear it, but i suppose some just came out early and this chipmunk ate them*

*i heard this from a very unreliable source.

anyways, will you guys stay in your house as much as i plan to do, when they hit big time?

[Pumpy Tudors]

As long as they don't bring those 30 hornets with them, I wouldn't be too concerned.

[korme]

touche

[Tigercat]

Yea I hear we get them here in Kentucky too. I saw a swarm of them in Texas once, but I hear the swarms of these things make southern swarms look like nothing. Some were spotted already up there? If the soil was already warm enough up there they must be coming soon.

[tucker342]

I hear them all the time, but rarely see them...

[Suicane75]

Im in Central Jersey, whats the cut off line?

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

Im in Central Jersey, whats the cut off line?

Your back porch.

[bbor]

what the hell are they?

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by samifan24

Your back porch.

Seriously? I hate bugs, and I hate a thousand of anything.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

Seriously? I hate bugs, and I hate a thousand of anything.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

...I hate a thousand of anything.

That seems like a pretty good policy.

Everyone around here (Maryland) says that we'll just be overwhelmed by the little bastards ina few weeks. 17 years ago, I was living in the Midwest, and they were hardly an issue at all.

[sachmo71]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

Seriously? I hate bugs, and I hate a thousand of anything.

I agree with the former, but you might rethink the latter. Think dollars.

[WSUCougar]

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

I hate a thousand of anything.

Naked breasts?

[Bearcat729]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

anyways, will you guys stay in your house as much as i plan to do, when they hit big time?

Nope, I plan on letting the cats out to play with the little annoying bastards.

But I don't expect there to be many on the east side our brood is supposed to come in 4 years.

[ScottVib]

Keep in mind Cats can get sick from eating them.

They reportedly started coming out in the Chevy Chase, MD area Sunday. I'm not looking forward to the prospects of having to play softball in an OF crawling with the buggers.

Most of the Maryland Area swarm is supposed to be out by the end of the week allegedly.

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

Im in Central Jersey, whats the cut off line?

Suicane, you can commemorate the event with a t-shirt.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

That seems like a pretty good policy.

Everyone around here (Maryland) says that we'll just be overwhelmed by the little bastards ina few weeks. 17 years ago, I was living in the Midwest, and they were hardly an issue at all.

I was living in Olney, Maryland 17 years ago when the cicadas came. It was awesome.

They're really slow and stupid bugs. You can catch them out of the air with your bare hands. My buddies and I spent most of the summer beating them out of the trees with lacrosse sticks and then making ritual sacrifices of them (merely pulling the wings off is just too easy). One friend of mine had a gallon-sized ziploc bag full of cicada heads. My brother favored pinning them to a block of wood with needles and dissecting them alive or burning off extremeties one at a time. I enjoyed hitting them out of the air with a wiffleball bat against a brick wall.

Good times!

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

I was living in Olney, Maryland 17 years ago when the cicadas came. It was awesome.

They're really slow and stupid bugs. You can catch them out of the air with your bare hands. My buddies and I spent most of the summer beating them out of the trees with lacrosse sticks and then making ritual sacrifices of them (merely pulling the wings off is just too easy). One friend of mine had a gallon-sized ziploc bag full of cicada heads. My brother favored pinning them to a block of wood with needles and dissecting them alive or burning off extremeties one at a time. I enjoyed hitting them out of the air with a wiffleball bat against a brick wall.

Good times!

How old were you?

[corbes]

Maybe we should import some giant hornets to take care of the cicadas?

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by samifan24

How old were you?

I was 13 at the time. I'm older and wiser now. I'd probably be a lot more efficient at tormenting cicadas with 17 years of experience and modern technology at my disposal.

[Blackadar]

Long story short.

17 years ago, for a Senior Prank in High School, me and a couple of buddies went walking through the woods one day collecting mega amounts of these thngs. The swarms were absurdly large and we collected enough in a couple of hours to fill 2 lawn-sized trash bags full of squirming bugs.

About 15 minutes before the bell for the first class the next day, we let them loose in the "main intersection" of our school. Which was packed with folks. Lots of folks. With heavily sprayed hair (as was the style at the time).

The screaming could be heard for miles...

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Long story short.

17 years ago, for a Senior Prank in High School, me and a couple of buddies went walking through the woods one day collecting mega amounts of these thngs. The swarms were absurdly large and we collected enough in a couple of hours to fill 2 lawn-sized trash bags full of squirming bugs.

About 15 minutes before the bell for the first class the next day, we let them loose in the "main intersection" of our school. Which was packed with folks. Lots of folks. With heavily sprayed hair (as was the style at the time).

The screaming could be heard for miles...

What an evil plan. Somebody tell Fritz: this is what an evil plan should be! Excellent work!

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Long story short.

17 years ago, for a Senior Prank in High School, me and a couple of buddies went walking through the woods one day collecting mega amounts of these thngs. The swarms were absurdly large and we collected enough in a couple of hours to fill 2 lawn-sized trash bags full of squirming bugs.

About 15 minutes before the bell for the first class the next day, we let them loose in the "main intersection" of our school. Which was packed with folks. Lots of folks. With heavily sprayed hair (as was the style at the time).

The screaming could be heard for miles...

You are the wind beneath my wings...

[Easy Mac]

there's a duck that lives outside of my apartment that quacks every morning at exactly 6 am. Far more annoying than a bug.

[corbes]

I used to live in a house that had carpenter bees living in the woodwork, which wasn't so bad except for the woodpecker.

[Bearcat729]

Originally Posted by ScottVib

Keep in mind Cats can get sick from eating them.

.

The cat we had at the time of the last bunch never ate them, he just liked playing with them. The dog was the one who would eat them and it didn't seem to affect her any.

[Suicane75]

Man, I am so not gonna enjoy this.
I don't think I'd enjoy 1000 breasts, it'd be overwhelming, im clumsy enough around 2.

[ScottVib]

Originally Posted by Bearcat729

The cat we had at the time of the last bunch never ate them, he just liked playing with them. The dog was the one who would eat them and it didn't seem to affect her any.

Cool then... I had heard that cats and dogs had problems with the hard exoskeleton.

[ScottVib]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

Long story short.

17 years ago, for a Senior Prank in High School, me and a couple of buddies went walking through the woods one day collecting mega amounts of these thngs. The swarms were absurdly large and we collected enough in a couple of hours to fill 2 lawn-sized trash bags full of squirming bugs.

About 15 minutes before the bell for the first class the next day, we let them loose in the "main intersection" of our school. Which was packed with folks. Lots of folks. With heavily sprayed hair (as was the style at the time).

The screaming could be heard for miles...

Ping Shorty.... this could work well for you.

[NoMyths]

I've never in my entire life enjoyed better fishing than during a heavy cicada season. Everytime anything hit the water, insect or hook, it was snatched up. Craziness. If you fish, enjoy it.

[korme]

Scott, in this day and age we would easily be caught bringing big bags in. Bookbags are the only solution and will require more ppl. I hate bugs though, so I dunno.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by samifan24

What an evil plan. Somebody tell Fritz: this is what an evil plan should be! Excellent work!

If you like that Senior Prank, here's another....

Get a pickup truck. Get a bunch of old spare tires from the dump. You need about 30.

Ring the flagpole with the tires by:

1. Using a ladder
2. (tougher and more time-consuming method) Tie them on to the rope that you use for the flag, pull them up and over the top and let them fall to the ground.

Guaranteed that it'll take the Administration 3-5 days for them to figure out how to get the tires from around the flagpole. It's not original, but very funny. Did it back in 1988 and it took them a week to get the tires off. With a chainsaw.

[corbes]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

If you like that Senior Prank, here's another....

Get a pickup truck. Get a bunch of old spare tires from the dump. You need about 30.

Ring the flagpole with the tires by:

1. Using a ladder
2. (tougher and more time-consuming method) Tie them on to the rope that you use for the flag, pull them up and over the top and let them fall to the ground.

Guaranteed that it'll take the Administration 3-5 days for them to figure out how to get the tires from around the flagpole. It's not original, but very funny. Did it back in 1988 and it took them a week to get the tires off. With a chainsaw.

That happened at our high school in the late 80s, too.

Saaayyyy, Blackadar....you weren't a serial flagpole tirer, were you?

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

there's a duck that lives outside of my apartment that quacks every morning at exactly 6 am. Far more annoying than a bug.

C'mon Easy, these bugs are supposed to get to 100 decibles. Thats got to kick the crap out of your duck.

[korme]

Can't do tires anymore because there is security at the school at all times.

[QuikSand]

Ran into (literally) my first batch today... was out on tra trails, and they kept clunking into my truck. Kinda weird - these things don't seem to have typical bug-like qualities. They just buzz around until they bang into something, then change direction. Ugh.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Ran into (literally) my first batch today... was out on tra trails, and they kept clunking into my truck. Kinda weird - these things don't seem to have typical bug-like qualities. They just buzz around until they bang into something, then change direction. Ugh.

Like I said, they're slow and stupid. A creative mind could have hours of fun with them...

[The Afoci]

I wonder if they like peanut butter.

[Franklinnoble]

Originally Posted by The Afoci

I wonder if they like peanut butter.

You complete me.

[WSUCougar]

Note that they are periodical, not formidable and certainly not colossal.

Cicadas

Cicadas are flying, plant-sucking insects about one to two inches (25 to 50 millimeters) long. They're known for their shrill—sometimes deafening—choruses, which the males make using specialized membranes called tymbals.

The songs of the male cicadas attract females for mating.

There are about 2,000 species of cicadas worldwide, most of them found in tropical or temperate regions. Most of the more than 100 species found in North America have short life cycles, between two and eight years. They are known as annual or dog-day cicadas because they usually emerge during mid to late summer (July and August).

A small number of cicada species have synchronized their life cycles so that they emerge from the ground in their billions only once in every 13 or 17 years. These are known as periodical cicadas but are also commonly called 17-year cicadas, 13-year cicadas, or locusts. They are not locusts, however.

The dog-day cicada is dark with green markings. The periodical cicada has protruding red eyes and orange legs; adults have clear wings with orange veins.

It is not known how periodical cicadas synchronize their life cycles over 13 or 17 years—or how they manage to count out the years. But by emerging at such long intervals in such vast numbers—as many as 1.5 million insects per acre [0.4 hectare] according to one estimate—they have evolved an effective strategy to overwhelm predators by sheer volume.

The mass emergence of periodical cicadas provides an unlimited feast for birds, snakes, and mammals. Even humans have been known to eat the harmless insects (Cicadas are not poisonous and do not bite or sting).

Once the predators have eaten to capacity, there are still millions of cicadas left over to produce the next generation. Predator populations cannot build up in response to such a massive food supply, because the cicadas appear above the ground only once in every 13 or 17 years.

Periodical cicadas are found in eastern North America and belong to the genus Magicicada. There are seven species—four with 13-year life cycles, and three with 17-year cycles. The three 17-year species are generally northern in distribution, while the 13-year species are generally southern and midwestern.

Periodical cicadas generally emerge in May and June, apparently when the soil temperature reaches 64° Fahrenheit (18° Celsius). This means that emergences in southern and low-lying areas occur earlier in the summer than in the cooler northern locations.

Magicicada cicadas synchronize their life cycles only in local areas. There are 12 broods, or year classes, among the 17-year cicadas and three broods of 13-year cicadas—so that in almost any given year it is possible to find adult periodical cicadas somewhere in the U.S.

Every year periodical cicadas will emerge somewhere in the eastern U.S. Some states have several broods in different locations. The class that will emerge in 2004 is the largest of the 17-year cicada classes and is known as Brood X (Brood Ten). Brood X is expected to emerge in parts of 15 states from New York to Georgia to Illinois. This brood last emerged in 1987.

There are no significant emergences of periodical cicadas expected again until 2007, when Brood XIII will surface in parts of Indiana, Illinois, Idaho, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Periodical cicadas can damage small trees or shrubs if too many feed from the plant or lay eggs in the twigs. They are not generally regarded as pests, except maybe by those who find them too noisy.

A female may lay as many as 400 to 600 eggs in small slits she makes in slender tree branches. Cicada "nymphs" fall to the ground after hatching, burrowing into the soil until they find the tree roots that they suck for food until it is time to resurface for breeding. Most periodical cicadas are gone by July.

[korme]

Everything in that article is what I've heard- they will come at 64.4 degrees and there will be so many that you can't walk outside to your car without being drilled by a few of them.

NASTY