Tonight, Axelet and I went to a woodsy park near our house to hunt cicadas. Every 17 years, when the soil reaches a temperature of exactly 64 degrees, the brood tunnels their way to the surface from the tree roots where they spent their time. There are so many of them that predators can't possibly eat them all, and so they reproduce and lay their eggs and die in about two weeks.
We walked into the woods on a well maintained nature trail at dusk, and into a small eating area with a picnic table. We could hear a low whisper, a rustling. Whisperstatic.
I looked up at the low-hanging tree branches, and under every maple leaf was a cicada -- hundreds of them resting, completely still. The branch was bending lower from their weight. At first I thought these were just shells, and I put a couple of them in our box. Later they would wake up and crawl around.
The light was fading fast. Axelet screeched with delight; she had found one burrowing out of the ground. We bent down to watch it make its way out. I saw hundreds of holes in the ground. As my eyes got used to the dark, I could see the entire ground move. There were already so many on the ground, crawling around, that we were surrounded in under two minutes.
That's about when Axelet lost it. As we were watching the first locust struggle out of its hole, others had blindly crawled onto our shoes. When they made it to her ankles Axelet wanted out, right away. I plucked four off my left shoe, two off my right, and dug one more off my ankle where he'd fallen into my shoe.
I carried Axelet the hundred yards to the clearing, and the cicadas crunched under my foot with every step. The racket in the woods was much louder now, thousands of locusts scraping across the leaves and bark.
I still haven't quite gotten up the courage to eat one.
weird-ass north virginia traditions
boston traditions? i don't think we have any - the only one that comes to mind is that we give beer to the boston marathon runners
Um, wtf? Eat one?
They're big ugly bugs about 3-5 inches long, with bright red eyes. There's tons of recipes in the paper for stir fry, grilling, soup, stew. Lots of protein.
They say raw ones taste like asparagus.
lol, the last couple paragraphs read like a Stephen King novel.
I don't think Caoh needs anymore protein in his diet.
;)
That had to be pretty cool. Are the ones you kept in your box still alive? Do you need to feed them?
The ones we harvested were still in their shells and appear light brown in color, pretty uniformly, with wings inside their shells. During the night they shed their shells. One appears to have died in its shell.
The hatched ones are colorful, black, green, dark brown, with rainbow colored wings. I am not clear on what they eat. I am sure Axelet will attempt to feed them something.
These cicadas (
Magicicada, from my bug book) only live for 5 weeks after emerging. 17 years underground, then 5 weeks to find a mate, lay eggs, and die. It's like cicada spring break!
My book also says they don't fly unless the temperature exceeds 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
Anyone see or hear these yet up north? I haven't seen them in the park across the street yet. It's certainly been warm enough. Maybe they don't like city life.
No way LB, the city would probably try to charge each of them $26/day to "park" in the city. They're better off down south by Axe and Co.
There's some maps and stuff on http://www.cicadamania.com
There are 12 broods of 17 year locusts that synchronize their emergence. This year is the largest of the broods, BROOD X.
Map is here: http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/michigan_cicadas/Periodical/BroodX.html
Ross you confuse me with brother LB? We all look the same to you?? Let me tell you something MR. Ross - we Scouts come in ALL SHAPES SIZES AND COLORS!!! I refuse to be ignored and marginalized by you daylighters. You figure cause you maybe dated a stealther or you got one in the guild that makes you immune to classism. Let me tell you something. You better look a little closer at your own attitudes. We will NOT be nerfed. We will NOT /y LFG any longer. You will learn to regard us on the strength of our spec not on the model of our toons.
You sir need some class sensitivity training.
FIGHT THE POWER!!!
Fantastic business opportunity (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1468&item=4169186084&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW)
haha!
Yeah, I read your post and it was almost exactly the same as an in-game conversation LB and I had the other day. I can't even walk and chew gum at the same time, so keeping all you FotM scouts straight is just not gonna happen, political correctness be damned. ;)
At least not until one of you rolls up a toon w/ big jugs.
lol, thread hijack inc!
Axe, you're selling cicadas online now? Better hurry, they're bound to outsource that once we move on to brood XI
:)
Last night they started singing. The males make the eeriest sound you can imagine. It's like a low hooting/chirping sound. This morning they were all singing up a storm in the trees across the street.
We have these where I grew up in central TX. They aren't as large though, maybe topping 1" before shedding their shell. I know the chirping sound. One of them can make quite a racket. I can't imagine thousands at once.
Was talking to guy I work with in Puerto Rico. He says the ones they get down there are as long as your hand.
...then he stabbed me. Damn Peurto Ricans.
They're doing it all the time now. It sounds like our evil alien overlords have returned to exact their vengeance on us. They're waiting in the woods in their vehicles of pain and death, and when the sound stops...
I'm not sure why or if this somehow reminded me, but Axe I once again ran into that guy in my office who looks scarily like you. I don't see him that often, but it always makes me do a doubletake. LOL
(EDIT) hehe, I guess you could take "who looks scarily like you" more than one way, but I'll let you decide. ;)
(Edited by Rosslyn at 5:36 pm on May 21, 2004)