The Cidada's story

“( I thought TT's would find this interesting)

In Cincinnati, 2004 is the Year of the Cicada. That's right, those horrible looking -- and noisy -- insects are about to rise out of the ground after their 17-year sleep.
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> Every 17 years, this particular brood -- Brood X, which is unique to Greater Cincinnati and doesn't tend to strike the rest of Ohio -- emerge from hibernation and take wing. That's correct, they fly. And it gets better.
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> They arrive by the billions. That's Billions with a B. Best guess is the third week of next May (a wetter spring may encourage them to come up a week early). You'll wake up and find your front yard poked full of escape holes. Then, the annoying pests will stick around for the better part of the summer, coating white cars so they appear black, getting stuck in your hair, cramming up office ventilation systems and -- seriously now -- requiring you to use your windshield wipers even when it's NOT raining.
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> By way of example, the swarming will get so bad that the Cincinnati Park Board is now requiring brides to sign a cicada release form before the park district will rent out its facilities for late May and June 2004 weddings. Outdoor weddings, picnics, and outdoor functions of all sorts will all be trashed by the loathsome creatures -- dive bombing the potato salad, strafing the salami sandwiches, and generally buzzing you nuts.
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> The noise from the periodical cicadas -- colored brown, with bulging red eyes and veins interspersed through wispy fragile wings -- can be overwhelming. The males and females form a chorus during mating calls, shrieking to each other, reminding each other that in a few months, their lives are over.
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> The cicadas are in a rush, knowing they only have four to six weeks to mate before dying. The phenomena prompted Cincinnati Enquirer editorial cartoonist Jim Borgman to draw a now famous cartoon of two cicadas in a bar:"It all comes down to this, Ernie," one is telling the other."We've got to get lucky tonight or it's all over."
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> The good news is these annoying cicadas are totally harmless, outside of the occasional report of a traffic accident in 1987 caused when the things flew into a motorist's wide open mouth. Yuck.
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> The periodical cicada doesn't sting or bite. It doesn't hurt trees. Its body grows to the size of a human thumb as it feeds on plant juices. And they're not to be confused with 7-year locusts. The locusts are related to the grasshopper family. The cicada is in a genus all its own.
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> The infant cicadas live eight inches under the ground. Short of digging up your entire yard (and that doesn't affect all your neighbor's yards), you can't do anything about them.
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Felix Winternitz is a long-time Cincinnati resident and author of The Insider's Guide to Cincinnati.”

“yeah - I heard it was that time in DC this summer too. Hate those things. Apparently they are symbolic of good luck in a French province.”

“My father's family is from Covington (across the river from Cincinnati) and I vividly remember being there in the summer when you couldn't hardly hear yourself think. Hell, they were everywhere.”

“It is butt cold outside right now, but I am not looking forward to spring. I was out of town 17 years ago so I missed it. Everyone says it is yucky.

My PR guy in my office is trying to get the city to have fun with it. So Cincinnati will have numerous Cidada themes being promoted. I think currently he is trying to get some costumes made of Cidadas that people will walk around in downtown.”

“hummmmm chocolate covered cicadas - I wonder how they taste”

“There better deep fried. Of course I am from the south, everything is better deep fried.”

“Remind me not to visit the Cincinnati area this spring. Or drive through with my mouth open, yeeeewww!”

“battered, deep fried pickle chips. Mmmm.”

“Cicadas are another reason, Along with the Bengals, not to move to Cincinnati.”

“Hey, it sounds to me like good reason to visit! I love cicadas!”

“I enjoy cicada years. Being out in the woods with them chirping is a trip. It's not just random ubiquitous chirping, but it will pass through the trees like waves. It can be hypnotic.”

“It can scare the willies out of you too, if you're on a solo trip, all you hear is cicadas and approaching thunder, and you're thinking of every Lovecraft story you've ever read.”

“I remember picking them up and playing with them while walking to the school bus stop when I was a kid. Noisy little buggers.”

“Ah, hot summer days listening to the cacophony of cicadas. Great memeories!”

“This IS interesting, Bigpoppa. I guess, being a naive New Yorker, I was unaware of their existence. The only parallel I can think of with them is Florida's love bug, except that they are around every year and they are a lot smaller.
How long does the infestation last?”

“Being from Lower Alabama, I can assure you Florida doen't have an exclusive on those damn love bugs.”

“I stand corrected, Chilmeister! Wasn't thinking clearly. Up to late last night wrestling with tires!”

“I have had them plastered all over a vehicle to where you had to scrub them off with a brush.

If you leave the windows of your vehicle down at night you wake up the next morning go out, start the car and have a million of them flying around your head trying to drive.”

“I assume that you are speaking of the infamous love bugs?”

“I read about this when I was like 10, and thought it was the coolest thing. At the time it seemed like 1000 years away...”

“TB, yes.”

“I remember when i lived in Tampa that some used to buy these 'bras' for the front of the car, so they wouldn't get too many of them inside the grill...”

“I assume that you are speaking of the infamous love bugs?

Herby?”

“Yes, those damned Volkswagons were everywhere!”

“In CT we have cicadas (a different variety) every summer . . .you know its a hot day in August when you hear the cicadas humming.

A couple of years ago we had a hatch of 13 or 17 year . . .I am not sure which . . .but only in a few selected spots . . not by the billions.

My wife and I went looking for them, but only found the "shell", or outgrown carpace/exoskeleton of one.

They are cool”

“Treebeard,

It will last through the summer.

I am wondering now if we will need to put goats blood on our doors to protect our first born.”