Getting ahead of the Cicadas …
Here I am at my children’s home in Columbia County, New York. I, with the help of my two canine friends, was trying desperately to get this little table painted before the Cicadas arrived at our doorstep. I could hear them clearly and the sound was getting more dense and much closer as I sat there.
This was the beginning of the cicada invasion. Every 17 years billions of cicadas crawl out of their ground burrows and inundate certain areas of the country. This year it was the Hudson Valley, NY and parts of New England and it was just my luck that it coincided with my three week visit there !!
Unlike an invasion of locusts, the cicadas pose no danger to people or pets but it was still a bit disarming to be in the midst of them flitting by the droves from tree to tree and landing on anything handy … including humans. I have to admit it was fascinating … but I also have to admit that I was very glad to be in the confines of our car !
posted by Ginnie at 2:20 PM
13 Comments:
There are many strange things on this planet.
Ginnie, I still remember the last time they made an appearance here in Raleigh. I had to sweep the dead ones off our deck every day for a few weeks and the pool skimmer caught many of them every night. Enjoy your time up north!!
Fascinating indeed. Especially since they don't bite...:)
What a description. While we have cicadas here, and I have seen the discarded exoskeletons, I have not seen a mass invasion, as you describe.
I always glad to see some creatures that show up in abundance. So much of nature is depleted. I wish we could still see passenger pigeons which used to be in flocks that blacked out the sun for days. An the cod, that once were so plentiful fishermen felt they could walk across their backs. There is still a great caribou herd in the Yukon and Alaska which will be threatened when they drill for oil in the Wildlife refuge. For all its abundance nature is fragile and we do not care enough for it. Your little creatures are just a mild inconvenience.
I had to laugh at the dogs laying on your sheet. I had a dog once that would try to lay on any square of fabric on the floor no matter what size it was. They just want to be close.
Thanks for your kind words about my Baron...
The cicadas were here a few years ago. Normally we have only a few each summer, but not the huge masses that make the news.
Like your company out in the yard! They would protect you, I am sure, from any invading critters!
We won't have them here this year, but there were major eruptions near here a couple of years ago. Forget which brood it was.
I was driving in the south of France a few years ago, when I heard this terrible loud noise and thought that there was something wrong with the car. In fact, it was the cicadas in the nearby fields. Quite amazing !
I remember them from my years in Virginia. I would collect their molts. They are gentle critters. But they do eat a lot! Nice photo of you, Ginnie.
Well Ginnie, the dogs didn't appear to be much help! I remember years ago when still living in Chicago, we had a Cicada invasion. My husband was riding his motorcycle with me on the back, through the woods. There were so many of them dead on the ground, the crunching noise was a bit disturbing to me!! Thanks for the memory! Love Di ♥
Cicadas are funny little guys. I call them nature's pruners. This fall, you will see the dead tips of the branches where the females laid their eggs and cut a slit in the bark. The funny thing is that their presence on the East Coast is spotty...heavy in some places and scanty in others. There are many to the South of us in adjoining counties, but few in the DC metro area.
These are the 17-year cycle Cicadas, however, I know cause I first noticed them in the spring of year my daughter was born in the following September, and she is 52 this fall. Dianne
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