mercury-hg

for those of you not familiar with the cicadas, the brown things are the shells which they shed, and the actual bugs are black w/red eyes (as nicely shown in another thread).

anyway, these pics are from my backyard... have fun





yup, they are pure white when they come out of their shells

KellyC

damnnnnnn...thats a whole lot of bugs!! thanks for sharing with us who are not so fortunate to experience them first hand..eerrrhh..eyes..

Force 10

Thanks for sharing. They actually started in Long Island, NY, last year but I suspect they'll be very heavy this year. I haven't seen them however, this year yet. I'm actually anxious to see them arrive ;-)

Again, facinating...thanks for posting.

WarWagon

Thats fucking disgusting. I think I'll be spending a lot of time in the garage this summer, with the doors closed.

saltfish

We used to walk around the back yard with a gas-powered lawn vaccum; took a helluva dent out of the local population. That, and they are great to add to the compost pile!

-SF

ktthequeen

good lord i'm so glad i don't live in the midwest anymore

fucking cicadas (what is the difference between a cicada and a locust anyway???) are nasty and soo fucking annoying

bernadette

all i can barely remember from my childhood in indiana is vaguely the sound & then my plucking one of those abandoned shells off of a tree & leaving it sit on my dresser top for a couple of years.
i was too young to truly appreciate or understand what was happending then.

being remote from it all now... it sounds like an interesting experience.

but your very next picture the bug is black...

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bernadette

oh & they called them locust in indiana. maybe it's not the same thing, but my empty shell sure looked just like yours.

and dang!!! holy jeebus. that's a crazy amount of 'em in your first pic.
i think i might be a bit creeped out if i was there.

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Hrothgar

i didnt remember them being so ugly. nice pics

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Peetster

Different critters entirely. Completely unrelated.

mercury-hg

the black one that looks like it's coming out of it's shell was actually dead, so it must have been there long enough for the color change to occur.

i had forgotten about the sheer quantity of shells and bugs. the smell of the decaying shells and dead bugs is pretty revolting. i nearly vomited after taking these pics! cleanup will sure be fun...

Averett

Holy fuckin hell that is disgusting. I would FREAK OUT if I saw all of that.

*shudder*

Anyone know if these things show up around Albany, NY? If so, I'm not leaving my apartment until these things are long gone.

Eww..

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Tophat665

I'm in NoVA, and we have the same thing going on. I agree, it's revolting, but it's kind of cool at the same time. Sitting around watching them buzz around the treetops in their thousands. My house has triple paned, krypton filled windows that would probably keep out the sond of a Harley Rally, but these little buggers are clearly audible inside, and you have to raise your voice outside to be heard over them.

A word to the disgusted: They are very like moths in their reaction to lights at night. The sun going down will not allow you to hang out outside this month. I had a half dozen adults fly into my garage, under the door cranked only 6 inches up, in an hour, and I had close to a hundred out on my patio last night, basking in my security light.

Really well done pictures, though.

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White Cluster

mother of god....thats crazy....is D.C. that bad too?

HeAtHeN

I heard about this on the radio the other day. They come out once every 17 years.... so.... how loud are they

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mercury-hg

since they are in a larval (or something like it) stage underground for 17 years, disruption of the earth and/or pavement ensures that fewer are in the vicinity. DC and baltimore aren't bad, but as soon as you get to a lightly wooded, non-newly-developed area, you're fucked!

as far as how loud they are, i believe i heard that one cicada at 1 meter can produce 90 dB. basically it sounds like sounds like rattlesnakes and baby rattles are being played over a huge PA system... allllll day.

la petite moi

OMG SO GROSS.

qtpye4u84

I am so lucky I dont live any where near nasty looking bugs like that I would freak out.
Hey I have the same Knife as you in the pic, its a tomahawk brand huh??
What were you doing with it lol killing some bugs???
Don't you have to put stuff around the trees to keep the nasty bugs away????
The bugs looked like leaves at first.

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KrazyKracka

that's a lotta shells.......

clockworkgreen

Haven't had it this bad in Loudoun County. They were loud as hell this morning and all day, though.

nash

They are damn loud. Even from miles away (like if you were in an area developed less than 17 years ago, and they dug up the ground where cicada nymphs or whatever were living in order to build buildings) there is a loud and constant drone. My area doesn't have it nearly as bad as mercury-hg's. There's probably like 50 shells or so in the tree in my yard, not like the thousands under hg's tree.

Spanxxx

a single adult male can produce a sound audible at 1.5 miles away, just to give you an idea of the sheer volume of having 1+ million per acre of these little F**kers around your yard.

Fortunately, they aren't too bad in my county. I do remember a bad year when I was young and living in KY though.

/sounding off (and not able to be heard) from TN

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Frenchie

that is soooo nasty!!! great shoots, though. But ewww!!! Thank God I'm not in Maryland:-P

Devilinmypants

i am very happy for peetster's post, i was begining to lose faith in humanity as a gene pool.

skyscan

90 is a bit high. 70-80 is normal. I had to deal with some (not this many) a few years back. They come out for however long and then disappear again. Annoying more than anything. Another note, they make great baseball batting pratice. =)

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Mephex

That is f'ing nuts.

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MooseMan3000

Holy hell.

GakFace

Yep, I'm in Indiana.. and we have Cicada's.. I just don't know it because I'm working 2nd shift right now and completely miss out on those lovely sounds that they make

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ARTelevision

yep - now that looks like an invasion!

some amazing images captured there - thanks for the vicarious view!

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degrawj

oh, my, lord. that is absolutely disgusting!!! now, i don't have any huge phobia of bugs or anything, but when they come in that quantity, geeahhhh... it just gives me the creeps.

kurtisj

yucks. we used to collect locust shells here in Il.

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CBlend

You had way more of them than I saw in my area, and I already thought we had quite a bit!

MadMartigan

I will take the Mosquitos anyday

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shalafi

and I thought love bugs were annoying

jdjammer

ewwwww.. better then snakes I guess...

ultra_agent9

What backyard? I can't see it for all the cicadas...

I love those little critters. Too bad they spend most of their life underground and then only live for a couple of weeks above. When they are not looking for a mate, they are dodging all the birds that are trying to eat them. Do you have a lot of birds haning around too?

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