Cicadas

A couple of weeks ago we were told the cicadas were due out any day. We still haven’t seen any in our own village but we’ve been hearing that there are lots out less than a mile west of here. On Saturday morning Steve biked over there and told me we should all go look. He said as he biked west he reached a place where you could hear a constant loud background hum and there were empty shells all over the tree trunks. (The cicadas crawl up the treetrunks as nymphs, then, clinging to the tree, emerge from their shells as adults)

We did drive through there Saturday afternoon. I went back early Sunday morning with my camera.

When I got far enough west, I saw tree trunks covered in shells as my husband said, with several having fallen on the ground.

It was warm and humid and didn’t smell too good, probably because of all the decaying shells (and dead cicadas).

The cicadas are about an inch long with bright red eyes.

They aren’t much good at flying. I saw as many fall out of trees onto the ground as I saw flying from one tree to another.

It seemed like a lot of them were just waking up – there were lots crawling in the grass. Here are two video clips from my camera. In the first one you can see a cicada crawling around and hear the high-pitched hum of cicadas in the background. (The ones making the noise must have already been awake)

I took the second clip when I was almost back to my house. When I am, there are rabbits, birds, and car/plane noise, but no cicadas and no hum! I know my camera microphone is very low quality, but I think you can hear the difference.