Krokus?

great. way to go, TheSpaceAdmiral. you spoiled the zen of it.

bastard.

"Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?"

"They're really cool to watch," said Notebaert's curator of biology Doug Taron. "They have these bright red eyes. And you can eat them."

But why?

FTA "you can eat them"?


no thanks, I'll stick to fries thankyou.

Boobies?

"They're really cool to watch," said Notebaert's curator of biology Doug Taron. "They have these bright red eyes. And you can eat them."

O RLY?

/rather not

Disaster Area unimpressed.

They're good with Ranch Dressing.

PSA: Never, EVER, go to a dinner party hosted by Doug Taron.

"Try the tempura! It's crunchy and delicious!"

/just completely lost appetite

+1 to Asteroth. You said what I came here to say.

ok who recalls the massive swarms that cause chaos in where was it?? Cinncinatti?? a few pets got sick from eating to many and a man got sick from frying and eating too many. also i think a women crashed into a fire hydrant because several flew into her open window and she got scared...

/chi-cha-dahs!!!

Cicadas do sound strange but I still prefer them to opera.

4 to the right, 1 down. I guess maybe if I was lost in the woods and starving...

I used to live in a part of town that was very popular with the cidadas. Trying to have a conversation while walking down the sidewalk was impossible without shouting.

I've been to concerts or clubs that were quieter.

And they're better with blue cheese dressing. Kinda like having celery sticks with your buffalo wings.

jrodnewb

I was in Cincinnati in 1987 when we had a major invasion of all 3 species emerging at the same time. Driving down the road was like watching a fireworks display. Even a local pizza chain re-recorded their jingle in honor of the emerging horde.....

Helps to include the jingle link....

Snappy Cicada Pizza

If you've never seen one of these farkers close up, here's a literary preview.

Take a Matchbox car, hook it up to about 110v. Not enough to kill, just enough to bit. Have it rigged to a switch that will trip when your hand/face gets about 5 inches away. Repeat 500 times and put them into your leaf covered backyard. Bring down a native of another state who is a bug lover, but who's never seen one before and remark on how wonderful and iridescent their coloring is.

Wait for them to approach and then hit the switch.

These little asshats vibrate like they're nuclear. I don't fear many bugs, but something is definitely square-pupiled about these little demons.

\shudder

FTFA: "The longtime Ravinia Festival has rejiggered its summer concert schedule because of the buzz created by a certain red-eyed bug."

I didn't realize Courtney Love was creating any buzz...

...oh...

I used to work as a lab assitant at the USDA research facility in Beltsville Md. When Brood X showed up a few years ago you had to beat away all the entomologists offering you any number of cicada confections. Drug dealer's don't got nothing on an entomologist trying to convince you that it's totally normal to eat bugs.

Eventually I caved and ate a chocolate covered cicada.

Meh.

"They have these bright red eyes. And you can eat them."

Definitely not Courtney Love!

WHAT?


Oh, Cicadas....nevermind.

...the Cubs have a week of night games beginning June 12th. By then, if they aren't doing well (again), the cicadas might drown out the noise from the fans

My dad used to work with a bunch of guys from Laos. He bet one guy he wouldn't eat a cicada. The guy did it no problem. Afterwards, they told my dad that they do it all the time.

can't you just gas em?

Shadow Blasko

Back in the 1987 emergence...I was driving down I-75 with my window partway open when a cicada flew in the car and landed on my leg. Damn near took out 3 lanes of traffic....

Shadow Blasko: "They do not eat. They do not sleep. Once they emerge, they find a mate, make some noise, then die."

Club kids?

/Party in a truck!

They make good cheap fishing bait. Take a live one off a tree and hook it length wise through the soft belly part. Soft cast it onto the water and let it wiggle there......nab a fish every time... I learned this on lake Monroe in Indiana the summer of '04

I lived in DC when brood X showed up. I thought it was funny to watch all the outdoor commentators on TV having to speak in an undignified loud voice in order to overcome the bug noise.

Do not eat cicadas if you have allergies to shellfish - that is what landed people in the hospital!

They kept getting caught in my hair when I was out walking - stupid bugs can't fly straight for anything...ew!

My son, then 3yo, took up serious ciciada hunting. He was good at it. My 1yo daughter could only catch the dead ones - in part or whole - but was just as proud to deliver them to me... the things we do for our kids...

We had them in the Maryland suburbs of DC a few years ago. They sound like an alien spacecraft coming in for a landing!

Strangely enough, you miss them when they're gone.

J. D.

rejiggered,
Please.

I live about 15 minutes away from Ravinia. It's a great venue. My highschool class actually held its graduation there.

I'm just going to take a moment to appreciate the evolutionary genius of showing up every 7 years in such mass quantities that nothing can eat enough of you to affect your population, and nothing can live long enough to survive off eating your species.

Cicada's aren't all that bad. In Phoenix, the Cicada's come with the monsoon season. The monsoon season means the intense heat is almost gone for the year.

Then its beer drinking weather again.

Good times.

I remember first hearing the racket when brood X showed up here (MD DC suburbs) back in 2004 and thinking, "What the hell is that?" Even though I'd heard all about them, I really didn't know what to expect. IIRC, it started right around Memorial Day at this latitude. It seemed like they died down somewhat after sunset.

At the height of 'cicada-fest', my kids came up to stay the summer with me. They didn't say anything for a couple of days, until my daughter asked "What is that god-awful noise?"

At their loudest, they could be heard inside a windowless basement room.

They do fly high... In '87 I found them on top of the Carew Tower (Cincinnati's highest building)

They are annoing...

You do miss them...

I have eaten them... live and squirming...

Condiments are for wimps... chocolated covered? why dont you put on a dress and swish around (bh)

/yes... I drunk out of my mind when I age the buggers (yes plural)

*was drunk...

shadow blasko

In 1987 the triple emergence convergence (thats what they called it) caused highways to have to be closed in northern Cincinnati so they could PLOW the carcasses off of I-275.

That must have been pretty damn intense. I had a similar experience during 2004 while working at the USDA. We'd go into these wildlife habitats to do our research. The ground in these habitats had not been disturbed in something like, 70 years, making for a perfect place to hibernate underground. As a result, the cicada density in these forests was insane. In many places we weren't even walking on the ground, instead we were walking on a layer of rotting cicada shells that was up to 2 feet thick in some places.

And the smell was god damned horrible too. An entire forest floor smelled like a rotting deer corpse. There was no escape.

Oh geez, they were brutal last year.

I thought THAT was the 17 year group.

This year is going to be a nightmare.

Hmm, lunar eclipse. Swarm of locusts. Could spell bad news if we this guy was in attendance.

/Didn't RTFA
//Not an apocalyptic nut.
///Just saying.
////Repent now! Everybody panic!

Last year was bad enough, but yes not as bad as 1987. They stripped all of the trees in my yard and man the stink when they were all dying was like funk on an old pair of shoes dipped in more funk.

/Not trashin' the "Nati.
//dagnabbit punk kid cicadas.
///Get off my lawn.
////and my car.
//and my kids.
//and my slashies.

Classical music pussies! I had one want to make sweet love to me and my weed whip once.

"They have these bright red eyes. And you can eat them."

Sounds awesome!
Somebody grab me a few freezer bags of those.
Cereal?