Lauren’s brother Mark told us over the weekend that they were in the middle of a 13 or 17 or some prime number anyway cycle of cicadas (which is surprisingly easy to spell). My initial reaction was, “Really, this is suppose to be impressive? I was there for the tail end of the Baltimore Great Cicada uprising of 2004, and this is nothing.” But I’m not the kind of guy to tell someone that his plague of locusts isn’t as bad as another plague of locusts that I saw, so I just smiled and nodded.
He did mention that they were much worse at Aunt Ruth and Uncle David’s (or is it “Aunt Ruth’s and Uncle David’s”) house. Boy howdy was it.
We had a nice visit with Aunt Ruth and Uncle David after we went back inside where we could hear them.
Brad says
Awesome! Watching the Maryland brood was so cool and creepy at the same time. I couldn’t look away. They had red demon-eyes like the ones in your pictures. I wonder if they’re the same species, but just on different life-cycle schedules.
Lauren says
Gah! It was horrible. The only way to get the true sense of how loud it was is to CRANK UP your speakers, then get another set of speakers and put them behind your head.
I told Aunt Ruth that if I lived there, I wouldn’t make it 13 years.
Gretchen says
When we lived in St. Louis the 13 year and the 17 year cicads BOTH hatched. I don’t remember the noise so much, but I do remember looking at a tree trunk with moving bark. Not really! It wasn’t bark -- every inch was covered with cicadas!
Peggy says
AHHHHHH!! I hate those things! If I was Aunt Ruth and Uncle David I’d have to leave town for a while.
I remember when we had them in MD. My place of work then was surrounded by trees & I couldn’t believe how loud the noise was every morning….but it was cool because it sounded like we were being invaded by outer space. It was fun to pretend. Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! — Warning! Warning! Alien approaching! — Silence, you ninny!
Mark says
***Jibblie***
Lauren says
Here’s something I didn’t know about cicadas. I thought they just slept in the ground for years or something until they came up to molt, but they TUNNEL. That’s what those crazy huge front legs are for.
Kitt says
Mark said it for me.