17 Year Cicadas

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Olympusman
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Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:31 pm

17 Year Cicadas

Post by Olympusman »

We are now in our emergence of Brood X of the 17-Year Cicadas. The ##### things are everywhere and even land on you when you are outside. On warm days we get the "choir" of horny males. ( I mean - 17 years?) The sound is not as shrill as some cicadas. A few years ago we were in Crete and the high-pitched choir was deafining. This species has a somewhat flatter sound. And, no, we are not going to roast any. I prefer to leave them to the squirrels and racoons.

Cicada nymph shell
Cicada nymph shell.jpg
17 Year Cicada.jpg
17 yr cicada.jpg
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

MarkSturtevant
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Re: 17 Year Cicadas

Post by MarkSturtevant »

Nice! Thee northern edge of their range is an hours' drive south of me. So I went out last week and saw lots of them. Hope to return soon for more of this spectacle.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

Olympusman
Posts: 5090
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:31 pm

Re: 17 Year Cicadas

Post by Olympusman »

Status report-
The cicadas are starting to thin out. The local chorus has moved south. A local university entomologist and I did an email exchange about the presence of 17-year cicadas in our area. We live on a mountain and he reported there was almost no activity on the west end of the mountain, whereas our area was one of the Plagues of Egypt.
We couldn't even sit on our deck because the damned things would land on us. At one point we had two different species singing - one of a flat pitch and one of a higher pitch. The higher pitched ones sang in a wave from west to east, much like a crowd in a sports stadium.
Anyway, we still see them crawling around, like guests who arrived too late for the party and missing the chorus ritual of mating.
Now, near the end of their above-ground cycle, we are seeing the damage.
The females make cuts in twigs to deposit their eggs. Since they like younger twigs with softer bark, this is where they make their cuts, which cuts off the flow of water to leaves at the ends of the twigs. Many of the hardwood trees in our neighborhood are showing dying leaves at the ends of their branches.
Don't even get me started on the invasion of Camel Crickets in my workshop.
Cicada damage.JPG
Mike
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

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