I love summer noise, birds, crickets and cicadas. But every summer since we have moved here, there have only been the "normal" cicadas that are around every year. They only make their noises at night, and I actually like the nice, rhythmic noise they make. But this year, some 13 year cicadas came out. There are 13 and 17 year varieties. They live underground for 13 to 17 years, then they come up and shed their exoskeleton, like this...
These empty shells are all over my fence. The kids came in about a week ago and said some creepy bugs were living on our fence. Yeah, they are pretty creepy.
Anyway, there are TONS of them. I mean TONS!! And once they all come out, they make their mating call ALL DAY LONG. It is so loud!! I read somewhere that they can reach up to 85 decibels. And I believe it!! It gets so loud that it actually hurts my ears and my kids will come in the house because, "Those creepy cicadas are so loud!"
Here is a picture of one...
They are pretty creepy with those big red eyes. But even though the kids think they are creepy, they still love to catch them. They will grab them by their wings and hold them, until they get freaked out by the weird keening noise they make when trying to fly away. Then they will let them go.
Apparently there are cicada recipies. If you want to try some, here is a link.
I think I will pass.
1 comment:
Bleh!!! Those things are huge!
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