The Cicadas are coming!

[Forsythe]

Anyone else mildly excited about the return of the 17-yr life cycle cicada in Northern Illinois?

I remember them coming in the spring of 1990, I was 13 and I found it really neat. Walking on grass and crunching dead cicadas was so neat.

[Telfer]

I wrote a <a href="http://chicago.metblogs.com/archives/2007/03/terrible_space.phtml">retarded essay</a> about this recently. I am not looking forward to it because my wife has a phobia and when she sees them she passes out.

If anyone knows of stuff you can put at the base of a tree to kill them, let me know.

When I was a kid I thought they were pretty awesome. I would collect their skins and stuff.

[carebear]

I am also really excited. I remember being a child during an infestation in North Carolina. My brother and I would play with the dead shells. Super cool.

They can be sooo loud.

Carrie
=)

[Mikaela]

First of all, ew. I l ooked up a picture of them because i hate bugs. Are they going to be all over, for real? is this going to be like a plauge of locusts?

Second of all, Forsythe, you were in my dream last night. I think we were going to live together, again. and now with this post, i dunno, i think i am having a Reaping moment or something. what was my dream trying to warn me about?

[PeteFitz]

If you go to the right places, ie foresty areas with a ton of green for these bastards to mao on, they are literally stacked on top of each other.

The other gross thing, if I remeber correctly, is these things molt like fucking crazy, so you see their peanut shells everywhere. So it seems like there is twice as many.

I didn't live in Chicago (proper) in 1990, so i have no idea how the roll in the city. But in the burbs, they were everywhere.

I hate these things. So loud. All the dudes trying to get their swerve on, calling out to the cicada honeys. So Loud.

[Mikaela]

i think i am going to hork

[PeteFitz]

Here. Everything you ever wanted to know about the spawn of satan.


http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/cicadas/index.html

[EdO]

Are they good?

[Mikaela]

i can't look at that site without puking all over my keyboard. oh, by the way, i have started wearing a Yamaha Keyboard around my neck. Pretty cool, huh?

[EdO]

Are they good?

"Periodical cicadas are also edible. Native Americans utilized them in their diet. In 1990, several college students were filmed eating them alive. When asked what they tasted like, the students reported that they tasted like almonds. Drying them in a microwave oven carefully causes them to release an almond smell."

[DennisOT]

I am not looking forward to it because my wife has a phobia and when she sees them she passes out.


I wish that happened to my old lady. I'd finally get some peace! Who's with me? Fellas?

So, the mother-in-law's coming this weekend. For the second weekend in a row. I wish she was like a seventeen year cicada!

No, seriously. Seriously. She's a lovely girl, my mother-in-law. And quite a cook too. Why, her beef stew could take the rust off a Studebaker. DING DONG. Put that on the base of a tree, Danny boyo, and those cicadas will stay underground.

Say pal, where you from? Cleveland? Careful you don't set our river on fire!

I tell, ya. I tell, ya. Is it me or is Ike going a little koo-koo these days?

[DennisOT]

Hey dumbass! The Cuyahoga river caught fire in June of 1969 and Eisenhower died in March of '69. Nice anachronism, ya idiot.

[Dennis swirls his scotch and soda. A cigarette dangles from the same hand that grips the glass. He seems older, sadder, truly the most depressing and portly and balding comic anyone has ever seen. He desperately tries to think of a come-back.]

Ladies and genterman, it's Arthur Schlesinger. I didn't recognize you without the bowtie!

[The blow has been parried. The audience, who are middle-aged people in 1972, all fortunately know who that guy is, and erupt inebriated laughter. Dennis takes a drink of his scotch and soda, a drag on his cigarette, and slowly moves on to his next joke.]

So my son looks like one of those girls now, with the long hair and the bell bottoms. I says to him, I says, Neal, why you have...

[Sleeps]

At a theater conference in college, I saw an original student musical based on the 17 year life cycle of the cicada. The music was dischordant and had 17/4 time signatures, and the story took 17 year jumps following the life of a professor who studied bugs.

If that sounds like a shitfest, trust me...it was.

[proxy]

There was a cicada year in Kansas about 9 years ago.

They are SO loud and SO huge and the dead shells fall off the trees like some kind of weird metaphor of grossness and I hate them so much It was horrible I had nightmares about them all summer....


I also want all earwigs to die, and disappear.

[rachelblewis]

I am super freaked out about this. The idea of walking on crunching bugs freaks my shit on out! Is this going to ruin my thoughts of having a fun and carefree Chicago summer of walking, running, picnics and biking???

[HeatherConnelly]

No one has confirmed yet--- does this affect us in the city? Or does Chicago spray for them or something?

[Mikaela]

rachel,i am way agreed with you. the word "crunching" is so gross to me now. i am creeped out.

[TommyP]

No one has confirmed yet--- does this affect us in the city? Or does Chicago spray for them or something?

Just restricted parking so the snow plows can push them all to the curb. I hope you don't park on the street....Shoveling your car out gets a little messy.

[rachelblewis]

Just restricted parking so the snow plows can push them all to the curb. I hope you don't park on the street....Shoveling your car out gets a little messy.


Are we serious about this? All bits aside...it gets this bad? I am so freaked out. I hate bugs. I HATE THEM. I couldn't sleep for a week after I saw Arachnophobia. An earwig once fell off the ceiling and into my lap while I was watching TV at my house in Montana. I have been afraid since then of bugs falling from the sky, now it might happen? WHAT? Is this for real? Seriously??

[DennisOT]

Fools:

I hate bugs too, but are you kidding me? The cicada phenomenon is amazing. They sleep for 17 years then wake up and fill the air with whistling... Very, very loud whistling. You should be looking forward to this.

It won't be as big downtown, and bigger where there are more trees, of course, but expect them all over. I was on vacation for most of the 1990 Cicada Tour.

Chicago will not spray for them, Heather Connelly. Chicago finds them totally cool.

[DennisOT]

No, they don't get that bad, Rachel "Bee" Lewis. My back yard had a few trees and a few brick walls perfect for climbing and shedding exoskeletens, if you happened to be into that sort of thing, and I would say there were merely "lots" of them. We could still barbecue and play basketball without constant nausea.

The sound is where its at. Once you hear that whistle you will find it cool.

[Sleeps]

The cicada's will be harmless.

They will find a nice tree, park on a branch, and rub their little wings together to find other little cicada honeys to make hot sex with.

Their shed skins will litter the ground, yes...but again, utterly harmless.

[Telfer]

There's also a chemical in human sweat that mimics a chemical in soil, and it signals to the cicadas a good place to lay eggs. So make sure you cover sweaty parts of your body or they'll try and lay eggs there. Not a huge deal if you don't mind them crawling on you, just a heads up.

[TommyP]

And, they're Kosher!

[Forsythe]

Stop scaring people Telfer. And stop dissing on BG.

The cicadas are good for the soil and are only really dense in large wooded areas. The parks around the city won't have too many, but they still will have them though. I don't remember the noise being THAT loud. It was noisy, but nothing worse then loud crickets at a rural lake house.

And the exoskeletons will be gone by the end of June I'm guessing. But May and June we will see a bunch of cicadas. So for May and June, wear sandals or shoes when walking on the grass.

[Sleeps]

Learning is awesome!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magicicada

Huh...they don't rub their wings together to make the noise! It's produced by membranes called tymbals in the males' abdomens.

[Telfer]

And stop dissing on BG.


My criticisms come from a place of fandom.

Also, I get a government grant to scare as many Chicagoans as possible, so get off my jock and let me continue my work for Scary Telfer, NPO.

[rachelblewis]

Thanks for the info guys! I am a little less freaked out. When we went backpacking when I was 8 years old, I got a tick in my head! He had been in my head for 5 days and just thought he was a loose piece of scalp. My Dad then tried to coax him out with a match but I started screaming and yelling that I didn't want to burn my hair just like Michael Jackson had done at a Pepsi commerical shoot. Then my Dad tried to get him out with tweezers while on the phone with a nurse from the ER, but she kept saying that if just the body came off, he would grow a new one from the head that was sucking out the blood of my head!!!! CRAZY!!!

I had to go to the emergency room on the 4th of July to have it removed. The ER was packed full of people who had blown themselves up, b/c Fireworks are legal in Montana and people blow themselves up all the time. It was crazy! The Doctor took him out in 2 seconds and let him crawl on the table next to me and I freaked. The doctor thought it was funny. I almost passed out. Then my parents were sure I was going to die of Lime disease at any moment! Crazy, jewish neurotic parents have scared me for life.

This is why I am afraid of bugs!

[AndyC]

As long as they aren't as gross as Mormon Crickets (real name) I'll be fine. Those things are monstrous, crunchy, cannibalistic and freaky as f*ck. If you're ever in the mountain west (Idaho, Utah, et al) at a certain elevation (not sure what elevation, but in the mountains) in the summertime, look out for these creeps. They're 2-3 inches long with thick, black, samurai-looking armor and make a loud, LOUD popping/squelching noise if you accidentally drive over one. If you see a bunch of them in a tight group, they're probably eating one of their own. Oh god, my skin's crawling from just the memory.

Whew. These cicadas seem pleasant in comparison.

[AndyC]

Blechh! Gross:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_cricket

[Telfer]

Scarier:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weta

Also, this:

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[rachelblewis]

ahhh! That was gross....

Or maybe I almost died of Hay Fever. I don't remember if it was Lime Disease or Hay Fever.

I don't have either and never ended up getting sick or having any problems from the tick in my head but my parents just thought I would get something and die. They examined me very closely every day for 6 months!

-R

[PeteFitz]

Honestly. Who is afraid of little old me?

Are you going to finish that salad?

http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/images/deciduous/cicada3.jpg

[TommyP]

They make wonderful pets and they're great with children...

http://xsi011.msu.montana.edu/asp/darrin/darrin_web/Cicada%20Play.jpg

[EdO]

I'm looking forward to it. I experienced the little buggers a few years ago in Indiana. The sound is awesome. It's a great sleeping noise...like a thunderstorm.

It must be an interesting life, living under the ground for 17 years, then popping up and making some noise till you mate and die. I wonder who gives the signal to all emerge at the same time? "Let's get up on top and FUUUUUUUUCK!!!! YEEEEEEEHAAAH!!!!!" BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Z!!!!!!

[Mikaela]

i am all itchy now. gross.

[Jenstab]

I also want all earwigs to die, and disappear.

I know this is off topic cicadas but on topic why we fear bugs...I woke up one night with this pain in my ear. It was this muffled feeling, and a Q-tip did nothing. So I turned my head over and an earwig fell out of my ear.

To condense this, I, had an earwig in my EAR.

I didn't sleep in my bed for a week and slept with a pillow over my ears for 3 months. I'm over that, but now I just go on vigilante killings of the bastards.

The cicadas look kind of cool though.

[cosmicpowers]

Cuuuuuute, that lil girl has cicada sauce all over her face.

Anyone have tickets for Ravinia this summer? (Seriously, I think they are doing some shows in the indoor theater during cicada season).

[AndyC]

I LOVE that centipede-eating-the-bat video. I don't know why. I totally have a healthy fear of creepy-crawlies, but that thing is so dope. Like, WHAT? You just ate a BAT? Respek.

[Juan]

Don't they come out every year? I mean there are different generations of them kinda like a graduation senor class.

[speedymarie]

Don't they come out every year? I mean there are different generations of them kinda like a graduation senor class.
There are a few annuals, who come out every year (they have green eyes).

However, the 17-year cicadas are a different type (red eyes), and when they come, it looks kinda like that scene in the trailer for The Reapening, when the grasshoppes dive-bomb Hillary Swank. It's a totally different thing.

I went to visit my family in Ohio last summer, and last summer was the year there for the 17-year cicadas. Literally, you could not have a conversation with someone sitting next to you (outside) without yelling, because the males' mating calls are SO loud. Everyone carried around a flyswatter to bat the cicadas out of their path as they walked, because they're just everywhere in the air. You couldn't eat outside because you'd have them in your food. You had to look before you sat down, because they'd be on a chair, and if you came in the house, you had to sweep off a couple on the way in.

This was in a normal suburban area, with a decent amount of trees.

[Guy]

I haven't visited CiN very often for a stretch. Then, in the first topic I read, Dennis O'Toole's glorious wit welcomes me back like I never left.

I'm a fan.

[Juan]

There are a few annuals, who come out every year (they have green eyes).

However, the 17-year cicadas are a different type (red eyes), and when they come, it looks kinda like that scene in the trailer for The Reapening, when the grasshoppes dive-bomb Hillary Swank. It's a totally different thing.

I went to visit my family in Ohio last summer, and last summer was the year there for the 17-year cicadas. Literally, you could not have a conversation with someone sitting next to you (outside) without yelling, because the males' mating calls are SO loud. Everyone carried around a flyswatter to bat the cicadas out of their path as they walked, because they're just everywhere in the air. You couldn't eat outside because you'd have them in your food. You had to look before you sat down, because they'd be on a chair, and if you came in the house, you had to sweep off a couple on the way in.

This was in a normal suburban area, with a decent amount of trees.

WOW check out the big brain on speedymarie.