Everything you need to know about the billions of cicadas that are about to swarm the East Coast.
But climate change may mean it's the last time
The Pilgrims called cicadas “17 year locusts,” because some of them survive for that long underground, sucking the sap from roots, between periodic emergences in epic swarms. Locusts are in the grasshopper family, however and cicadas are garish relatives of spittle bugs and crickets. Beyond that we know precious little about cicadas’ mysterious lives under the earth. And we don’t understand why they wait 17 years between appearances (for some subgroups it’s 13 years, and there are also annuals.) Why 17? Why 13? We also don’t have a clue how these brainless arthropods manage to keep track of the passing years. And how exactly do cicada nymphs know when to all come wiggling out of the soil on cue, emerging within hours of one another after spending over a decade interred?
Most of all, we don’t know why cicadas are diminishing in numbers, their ranges shrinking in many parts of the eastern U.S., or why some historical groups have already become extinct. One thing that scientists are going to do in the weeks ahead, as the huge group, known as Brood 2, emerges from its subterranean haunts from North Carolina to western Massachusetts, is chart the precise location of populations, especially along the fringes of their range. “We need such fine scale mapping,” Cole Gilbert said, “to more directly understand the causes of shrinking distribution.”
How many cicadas are going to come out? Nobody knows for sure. “Billions, maybe more,” Gilbert says. Entomologists have counted as many as a million cicadas per acre during the peak of previous swarms. Emerging in such astronomical numbers may protect individual cicadas from predators– there is just so much that a bird can eat.
The rest: http://www.salon.com/2013/05/03/cicadas_prepare_to_invade_by_the_billions/
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I've always had a slight fear of these since I was a child when one dive-bombed me & got caught in my hair. I was probably about 7yrs old and I tried taking it out of my hair and it was freaking out and buzzing loudly. Nightmares.
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Summer nights just wouldn't be the same without their chorus.
do I ever "hear" you there! 
I had that temporarily one time. Thought I was losing it. 
I also have the ringing. Sadly, that one isn't temporary. Damn rock concerts.
It's at least a possibility, right? 
So is 13, for the 13 year variety.
That means less competition because they only have to compete with those other 17 year cicadas. Or something to that effect...
Can't exactly remember how it works out, but that's the idea.
Maybe I should Google it...
The only sound I miss more is the call of meadowlarks in the morning and mourning doves in the afternoon.
...used to be so many here in the city, but our burgeoning urban hawk population has decimated and/or scared them off-?
Love your "love this thread" graphic!
...but like all adult insects they're annoyingly crunchy, like that crunchy bit in popcorn that always sticks between your teeth. Chitin is the reason we peel shrimp. It's edible, although indigestible, but tough and chewy.
A plate of nymphs:
Cicada satay:
Is that they bring the Cicada Killer Wasp:
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When we got a family of these things living in our front yard years ago, we all (me, wife, young kids) all got freaked out. They were huge, almost 2 inches long, and VERY aggressive. After researching them on the net, I found out they are actually totally harmless and very fascinating creatures.
A group usually consists of one Queen and several male drones. The Queen digs a burrow and the males protect it. What is interesting is that the main defense (and offense) of the males is that they are aggressive and look like "real" wasps. In reality, the males have no stingers! They will come at you like crazy and have you running back inside for your life. However, they are totally harmless. Eventually, I mustered the nerve to let one land on me, and soon even the kids were doing it.
The Queen meanwhile, has a stinger, although she is very unlikely to use it on anything other than a cicada. Her stinger has a poison (harmless to humans) that paralyzes the cicada. She hunts the cicada, stings it and carries it back to the burrow. This is truly a sight to see, as the cicada is often larger than the Queen.
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Once in the burrow (this is my favorite part), the Queen lays her eggs inside the paralyzed cicada. Then she and the drones go off to die. When the eggs hatch, their first meal is the paralyzed, still living cicada! EEEEWWW!! In the spring/summer, once the cicadas arrive, they emerge from the burrow and the cycle repeats.
Always one of the highlights of my summer!
