We have a bumper crop of Cicada bug "husks" this year. They are all small (about the size of the last joint of the little finger), I saw them yesterday while doing chores for mom, they were clinging to the leaves of the trees and bushes, and scattered on the ground. I have never seen so many. So far I do not hear any however.
Isn't this how they start certain types of horror movies?
There are "periodical cicadas" that emerge only once every 13 or 17 years. A brood of them is due this year in the SE US, mostly in Georgia and S. Carolina, but extending as far west as Oklahoma.
These all emerge relatively early in the spring, and will die off before the annual cicadas emerge in another month or two. Then the same thing will happen again in 2024.
Amazing, I wonder how that internal clock works, and how the potential for new life lies dormant for so long.
I have been watering the plants and now the frogs are singing.
At least they eat bugs
Taso
That must be some of that Greek cooking, it certainly ain't from Georgia.;-)
Andy
Notice how the nominal periods are prime numbers? That guarantees that the ones on different cycles appear in the same year to compete with each other as rarely as possible.
Augusta Constitution cartoon from last week:
Call in Andrew Zimmern....as long as it's not a DURIAN he'll eat it!! 🙂
They are driving me NUTS. Something about that whine they make gives me a headache.
Update: we must be near the epicenter of a cicada emergence. I had said previously that I did not hear any, but it turns out that was apparently not true. For several days before I noticed the husks, there was a constant whirring noise which went from 7:00 to 7:00 every day. It was so unrelentingly constant that I thought it was a mechanical pump or drill rig nearby. since then it has grown even louder and after some searching seems to be coming from the woods near the SC/NC state line. It sounds just like a hokey alien invasion soundtrack, but must be emanating from a massing of potentially tens of thousands of cicadas!
> Amazing, I wonder how that internal clock works, and how the potential for new life lies dormant for so long.
It doesn't really lie dormant.
The cicadas lay their eggs in the trees, and when they hatch, the nymphs drop down and burrow into the ground, where they hang out, getting food from the tree roots. For the periodical cicadas, this part of their life cycle lasts either 13 or 17 years, depending on the species. Then they burrow out of the ground, molt, and take on their adult form, where they only live a matter of days. In that time, they mate, lay eggs, and the cycle starts over.
There's a debate about whether or not the adult cicadas eat anything.
