Defending against the Cicada hordes!

[PFactorDave]

Get tiny bug spray cans and spray? I know candles of some sort do keep those bugs away...

Badminton raquets are pretty effective, and the bugs are large enough to be fun to knock across the yard like undersized badminton birdies. 

[iron650]

Badminton raquets are pretty effective, and the bugs are large enough to be fun to knock across the yard like undersized badminton birdies. 

Try hitting them with bats might look more fun. 

[PFactorDave]

If I didn't live in a residential neighborhood...  I have a smoothbore 22 cal rifle that was designed to fire 22LR shells filled with No.12 shot, which is a lot like sand grains.  I think it would be fun to sit in a lawn chair and blast them as they fly around.

[iron650]

If I didn't live in a residential neighborhood...  I have a smoothbore 22 cal rifle that was designed to fire 22LR shells filled with No.12 shot, which is a lot like sand grains.  I think it would be fun to sit in a lawn chair and blast them as they fly around.

Or if you were mowing you would have a pistol to fire at them.

[PFactorDave]

Or if you were mowing you would have a pistol to fire at them.

Well, for mowing, I have two little girls with badminton racquets!  

[Tupac]

Or if you were mowing you would have a pistol to fire at them.

Those darn blasted cicaders! Get out of my yard

[F22RaptorDude]

This site has some maps that show where the broods are in what years they emerge.

http://www.cicadamania.com/where.html#broodchart

Ah hell we are doomed for this year It would appear?

[ROX]

Can't speak about the effectiveness of badminton raquets, but my wife (fiancee at the time) was tired of being buzzed and attacked by bats in the late afternoon/dusk walking the path around Lake Winona.  I recommended she take a tennis raquet along.  She had a number of misses but sent a few nursing their aches back to the cave. 

[Meatwad]

Those things are swarming here, but to me I love the sound of cicada.

Getting rid of them is another story, but a windshield does a good job

[curry1]

You probably get the 17 year cicadas up there in the Dairyland.  I'm in the center of Illinois and we are on the northern edge of this variety of 13 year cicadas. 

Was just about to say that I get them every 17 years in Virginia.  It was bad.  Yet hilarious because the news went bat toejam over it.

[PFactorDave]

Yet hilarious because the news went bat toejam over it.

Yup, local media is going bat toejam here too.

[Saxman]

The call center where I work is SURROUNDED by the little bastages. Over the weekend (I wasn't working, whew) so many got sucked into the AC  units that they clogged the filters and broke them. They're even getting inside, too.

[fbWldcat]

The cicadas are some of the best fishing bait you can find. Anything from big panfish to monster bass will bite on them. They're much more popular than the normal cicada, it seems. Instead of spraying them, take a kid fishing. 

[4deck]

@ pFactor

Great story man. 

I remember as a kid growing up we had an infestation 1 year. Don't know if it was the 7 or 13, but I was so curious, and amazed at these bugs which I never saw before. They were huge, and when my mom said they didn;t bite. I went around and collected a few. That was before I realized the importance of punching holes in the jar I kept a few in.

[xbrit]

I had noticed them until today. We made a trip to Springfield then Jacksonville, we stopped off at Ponderosa in J/ville and the tree outside was full of them.