Cicadas - They're Baaack

[desdemona]

I hate these things, we seem to get them alot in ohio, they look just like locusts to me, but I guess they aren't, anyone else get them in their neck of the woods?

They're Baaaack!

They've been lurking underground for almost two decades. Now billions of cicadas are coming out for a final, noisy farewell. Then the whole cycle starts anew

By KRISTINA DELL

Wednesday, May. 19, 2004

They're not locusts (which are a type of grasshopper), but for much of the Eastern U.S. this year, they're certainly a plague. Some cicadas appear almost every year, but the Brood X periodical cicada, as scientists call this variety , is the big one: the world's largest insect swarm. For the next five weeks, sidewalks will be littered with crunchy brown shells, ant treetops will be buzzing with an ear-splitting screech.

Cicadas look scary with their vaguely devil-shaped heads, but they're really harmless, and some communities even look forward to their arrival. Cincinnati, Ohio, for example, is planning cicada festivals, parties and even meals. Gene Kritsky, a cicada expert, is testing out a new recipe this year, cicada chowder. But entomologist John Cooley, who studies cicadas at the University of Connecticut, won't touch it. "Seventeen years underground just to end up as someone's dinner?" he says. "They're too marvelous to waste."

read the article here:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...-638434,00.html

[DudeAsInCool]

According to an NPR report, they literally have drums inside themselves--so the sound we here eminating, if from millions of them mating simultaneously :bigsmile:

[Cerebral_Assassin]

Rare blue-eyed cicada found in Jefferson County

Charles Town, WV

A Jefferson County boy is in possession of a rare find -- a blue-eyed cicada.

Billions of the insects have been crawling their way above ground to mate.

Ten-year-old Brandon Hite started collecting cicadas outside his home after his sister saw a television report that in rare instances, some cicadas had blue eyes. But until Thursday morning, he had about 90 red-eyed cicadas stored in a cooler.

And that was making him blue.

His cousin, Mike Hite, was working at a construction site that day in Winchester, Virginia, when a blue-eyed cicada landed on him. He gave the insect to Brandon.

An entomologist with the West Virginia Department of Agriculture has offered to send someone to Brandon's home to pick up the insect.

Brandon's father, Gary, doesn't seem to mind having one less cicada around the house, even if it's a rare one. He says the infestation has been --quote-- "awful."

[DudeAsInCool]

Goodbye Cicadas, Hello Rats!

Health officials in Montgomery and Fairfax counties are recording an unusual increase in complaints about rats, which are feasting on the carcasses of cicadas.

    The Montgomery County Health Department fields about 100 complaints about rats each June but has already logged 136 such calls this month, said Stephen Haynes, an environmental health specialist for the county.

    The Fairfax County Health Department received 43 rodent complaints in May 2003 but recorded 74 last month, said spokeswoman Kimberly Cordero.

    "I've been working here for 16-plus years, and we're getting [rats] in places we've never gotten before," Mr. Haynes said. "The only thing we can attribute it to is the cicada population."

    Mr. Haynes said he and co-worker Richard Lefebure concluded that cicadas are behind a spike in the rat population after they observed the rodents munching on the red-eyed bugs and found half-eaten cicada carcasses near rat holes.

    But Ms. Cordero said there is insufficient evidence to prove cicadas are responsible for the increase in rat sightings.

    "We don't want to necessarily make a connection with cicadas," she said, "but it is very interesting to see the spike."

    Officials in other jurisdictions said they have not seen an unusual increase in complaints about rats but could not provide figures about the number of calls they had received.

    Officials in Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties and Alexandria said rat complaints typically increase during late spring and summer, when warm weather and fresh food sources — such as berries and picnic scraps — lure rats from their lairs.

    Even in the District, where rat infestations in 2002 prompted Mayor Anthony A. Williams to declare war on the rodents, complaints have remained at a normal volume, said spokeswoman Vera Jackson of the city health department.

    Mr. Haynes speculated that other jurisdictions have not noticed an unusual rise in rat complaints because their health specialists do not make house calls or track calls, as do officials in Fairfax and Montgomery counties. He also said the rats apparently have gathered in the suburbs for good reason: Where there are more trees, there are more cicadas.

    The Brood X cicadas burrow near tree roots, only to emerge by the millions every 17 years to mature, mate, lay eggs and die over several weeks in areas in the Eastern United States. Over the past few weeks, the thumb-sized, winged insects have reached the peak of their emergence and have been dying off.

    Their decaying husks have produced a distinctive odor in some parts of the metropolitan area while providing food for dogs, fish, birds — and now rats.

    "Rats are going to go where the food is," Mr. Haynes said. "And just like any insects, there's a food value in [cicadas]."

    Silver Spring resident Laura Barriere, 46, said she had lived in Northeast near Catholic University for 11 years without ever having a rat problem and was shocked that her first encounter with the varmints happened outside the Beltway.

    "You just think of the suburbs as being cleaner," said Ms. Barriere, a senior manager at Fannie Mae Corp. "Rats are a thing you find in the city."

    She said she has not seen any rats devouring cicadas but has seen them lurking amid the carcasses in the garden in her front yard.

    Ms. Barriere's next-door neighbor, John Moyer, had lived in his home 40 years without ever spotting a rat — until his wife, Barbara, found eight of the critters scurrying around their lawn last week.

    At first, the couple was "mystified" by the sudden invasion, he said. But after closer inspection, they had a clue about the source.

    "They were eating all the cicadas down under our maple tree," said Mr. Moyer, a retired satellite engineer for NASA. "Oh sure, they were having a picnic. We had had nothing out there to attract them. Mother Nature put the stuff out there to attract them."

    A few days later the Moyers placed packets of rat poison in the network of holes in their back yard. As of yesterday, the couple had not seen any rats in six days.

    "We don't like Mother Nature playing tricks on us like that," Mr. Moyer said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20040...02503-9663r.htm