Dh was working in the suburbs yesterday and he said that when he pulled into the drive of the house he was to work at, he wondered what in the world that was covering their driveway. When he got out of the truck, he said he noticed there were hundreds of shells of cicadas all over the drive. He said they were everywhere! Flying overhead, covering the trees....he said the sound of them flying was intense and amazing! When he got home from work last night, we discovered that a few of them had hitched a ride home in the back of his truck (pics at the end of the post to save those weak of heart the trauma. ;) )
I had heard they were coming, but didn't really know a lot about them, so I looked it up. This particular type expected here is known as Brood X. There are several classes of cicadas, but this particular type is one of the largest. They only appear once, every 17 years! They begin to appear around May and by June, they are gone again; never to be seen until another 17 years have passed.
The mama cicada lays her eggs (around 600 of them!) in tree branches. The eggs hatch and the nymphs fall to the ground where they dig their way down. They feed on tree roots over the next 17 years until they are ready to emerge again. No one knows how they know when 17 years have passed, but they do.
Cicadas provide quite a feast for your local dogs, cats, mice and other critters. Even humans have been known to eat them. Dh is melting his chocolate as I type getting ready to sample a few.....
Kidding! :D
A few pics of the ones that hitched home with Dh...
3 comments:
EWW! Doesn't look like Sam is too sure about them lol
I just saw a write up of those on the news recently! Yuck!! Reminds me of one of the plagues...hahahaha Sam is not sure at all...lol On the news they showed a group of people eating them.....COME ON PEOPLE!!
You can keep them! I'm not really ready for a swarm of locusts, or cicadas either for that matter!
Sam is looking so much older .... his chubby baby face has disappeared!
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