Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: PFactorDave on June 07, 2011, 01:08:10 PM
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This is a cicada...
(http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w220/Davis_Andrews/cicada5090.jpg)
It is a fairly large bug, approximately 1.5 to 2 inches in length.
Where I live, we are suffering through the year of the 13 year Cicada. These bugs emerge from the ground every 13 years. They climb into the trees, shed their exoskeleton, open wings... A few days later, the males of the species begin trying to attract a mate, which is done with a buzzing/chirping call. They are able to fly, but aren't very good at it and tend to ram things a lot.
Problem is, there are quite literally millions upon millions of these things. If you have never experienced cicadas like this, let me just tell you that the buzzing calls of millions of cicadas is enormously loud. Fortunately, they only last about 5 weeks, and they quit their infernal noise making when the sun goes down.
Anyway, today I mowed my lawn. Apparently, a Craftsman 6.75hp lawn mower engine makes sounds like sweet love to these bugs. I was getting swarmed! Fortunately, the bugs don't sting or bite, but because they are so large and tend to crash/ram into things, it was like getting pelted with small stones. Annoying more then anything.
My 8 year old daughter and a friend of hers were playing inside. I went in and asked them if they wanted to defend me against the evil Cicada horde while I mowed. They were willing to volunteer for the hazardous duty!
I equipped each of them with a badminton racquet.
As I mowed, the two little girls had a blast running around the yard whacking the bugs as fast as they could. It was hilarious to watch. I couldn't help drawing the comparison to defending against the horde in Aces High.
When I finished, I told them that they were the best two little wirbles I had seen in quite some time. They just gave me a blank stare.
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:rofl :lol wait until they repeat the words little wirble..."what's a wirble mommy?" :headscratch:
i always thought cicadas were cool...it's a very good thing they don't bite or sting.
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:rofl :lol wait until they repeat the words little wirble..."what's a wirble mommy?" :headscratch:
i always thought cicadas were cool...it's a very good thing they don't bite or sting.
:rofl
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.
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ya, i think the last swarm was in 07...between those things and "june bugs" it was difficult keeping the front of the car clean.
i've seen small numbers even in none swarm years...must be some overlapping years with smaller populations.
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Where I am in Indiana we get some-odd-year cicadas every damn year. I do not remember any year without them. And its not 5 weeks long, its more like the entire summer. Collectively the swarm of them sounds like tinnitus, the ringing in the ear you get after hearing loud noises. Last cicada season I saw a drug ad on TV that was supposed to help with tinnitus, and I just laughed and thought to myself, if me taking that drug causes every cicada in earshot from me to die, then I'll buy it no problem.
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I hate all bugs, But I love spiders :D
Not sure If we have them in Georgia, if its 13 years then I wouldn't know :lol
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Where I am in Indiana we get some-odd-year cicadas every damn year. I do not remember any year without them. And its not 5 weeks long, its more like the entire summer. Collectively the swarm of them sounds like tinnitus, the ringing in the ear you get after hearing loud noises. Last cicada season I saw a drug ad on TV that was supposed to help with tinnitus, and I just laughed and thought to myself, if me taking that drug causes every cicada in earshot from me to die, then I'll buy it no problem.
Here, there are so many and they are so loud, that it gets almost painful at times.
We're about 3 weeks into the cycle. I read that, soon the adults will lay the eggs in the trees. When they hatch a few days later the pupa fall to the ground and burrow down to spend the next 13 years feeding on the tree roots.
We see a few every year, but nothing like what we are having this year. It's really quite amazing, in a "I'll be glad when it is over" kind of way.
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Not sure If we have them in Georgia, if its 13 years then I wouldn't know :lol
This site has some maps that show where the broods are in what years they emerge.
http://www.cicadamania.com/where.html#broodchart
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Haven't had a swarm in a good while here, but we do have a few cicadas every year. I remember before I bought my house I came home to my rental late one night from work. Opened the front door to the dining room (which used to be a porch) and flicked on the light (a porch light) and apparently a lone cicada had slipped in the house. Getting buzzbombed by a cicada at 1am is quite the tramatic experience. I caught the poor guy and let him loose outside. Then I changed my shorts.
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Someone needs to start a dweeb squad and call it the Cicadas.
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See, this has potential. You could record the sound of your lawnmower engine.
Then get cheap speakers and a playback device.
Activate the kit in the yard of whatever neighbor pisses you off the most... and enjoy.
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Someone needs to start a dweeb squad and call it the Cicadas.
Brilliant!
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Someone needs to start a dweeb squad and call it the Cicadas.
would it have to be a dweeb squad, or just a squad of annoying people?
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would it have to be a dweeb squad, or just a squad of annoying people?
a squeaker squad
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Get tiny bug spray cans and spray? I know candles of some sort do keep those bugs away...
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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.
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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. :lol
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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.
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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.
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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!
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Or if you were mowing you would have a pistol to fire at them.
(http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/uu60/gabbriell-photos/For%20Fun/yosemite-sam-shooting.gif)
Those darn blasted cicaders! Get out of my yard
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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?
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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.
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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
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:rofl
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.
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Yet hilarious because the news went bat toejam over it.
Yup, local media is going bat toejam here too.
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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.
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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. :aok
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@ pFactor
Great story man. :aok
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. :(
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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.
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we have the katydid's every yr here in western NC those thing make a racket all night long!
(http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/Insects/True%20Katydid/t_1203.jpg)
were supposted to be in a cicada brood yr but i havent seen any of them yet!
and you can bet ill use them as fishing bait!
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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.
I'm a little further East from there in Mt Zion Illinois, it was cooler this morning and they were quiet. I thought for awhile that maybe the worst was over, but once the temp warmed up they started in again just as loud as before.
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we have the katydid's every yr here in western NC those thing make a racket all night long!
(http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/Insects/True%20Katydid/t_1203.jpg)
were supposted to be in a cicada brood yr but i havent seen any of them yet!
and you can bet ill use them as fishing bait!
wow i haven't seen a good kaydid swarm in decades...those things used to creep me out... :lol ...almost as bad as a praying mantis hatch
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we have the katydid's every yr here in western NC those thing make a racket all night long!
(http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/Insects/True%20Katydid/t_1203.jpg)
were supposted to be in a cicada brood yr but i havent seen any of them yet!
and you can bet ill use them as fishing bait!
When they emerge is dependent on the temperature. It has been unusually warm here so far this summer, so it may be that it just hasn't been warm enough for long enough yet.
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wow i haven't seen a good kaydid swarm in decades...those things used to creep me out... :lol ...almost as bad as a praying mantis hatch
I love it when the praying mantiss' come around. Awesome little critters.
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I hate that noise :bhead
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Huh, looked at the website and it says nothing about central Texas, but I see them a lot. I saw a WHOLE lot of them 2 years ago.
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Huh, looked at the website and it says nothing about central Texas, but I see them a lot. I saw a WHOLE lot of them 2 years ago.
southeast texas
http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/aimg82.html (http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/aimg82.html)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhyA59qu9zw&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhyA59qu9zw&feature=related)
Houston,Texas. About 100 miles from me
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Wow...the DC area and virginia have 7 broods.
No wonder it seems like they are there every single year.
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Believe around Poplar Bluff, MO there was cicada ice cream being served
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Believe around Poplar Bluff, MO there was cicada ice cream being served
The Show Me State... Show me a good place to hurl...
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We get them every summer in NE Texas. The sound of a Cicada is pretty much just another sound of summer like lawn mowers and kids splashing in swiming pools.