Swarms of cicadas emerging in Midwest

[rodeodance]

heads up people in the midwest!!


http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070520/UPDATE/705200358/1020

Swarms of cicadas emerging in Midwest

By TARA BURGHART, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 13 minutes ago

CHICAGO - Coming soon: Brood XIII. It sounds like a bad horror movie. But it's actually the name of the billions of cicadas expected to emerge this month in parts of the Midwest after spending 17 years underground.
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The red-eyed, shrimp-sized, flying insects don't bite or sting. But they are known for mating calls that produce a din that can overpower ringing telephones, lawn mowers and power tools.

Brood XIII is expected across northern Illinois, and in parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. Cicadas live only about 30 days as adults, and their main goal is mating.

They don't harm humans, although they are clumsy and might fly into people. Birds, squirrels and pets, especially dogs, love to eat them, and they are high in protein.

[karlrschneider]

1. Didn't see it at that link but found another one

http://www.twincities.com/ci_5943685?source=most_viewed

I think they're kinda cool myself. ;-)

[mod mom]

I had one fly into my mouth while in grad school in Cincinnati. It was a horror movie

for someone like me, not particularly fond of bugs. You couldn't walk outside without crunching on their shells. I remember sitting in my car with swarms covering the windows.

but I would take swarms of cicadas over bu$h-any day!

[Kingshakabobo]

6. We had a bible study teacher that would eat them.........

I guess John The Baptist ate them so he was following in his footsteps........at least that's what he told us.

[charlie]

12. Teacher was a ninny

Cicadas aren't the "locusts" J the B ate.

[Kingshakabobo]

14. They were real whakadoodles.

I was raised Catholic but my neighbors were southern Baptists. Once in a while my parents would let them haul me and my brother to some event. It was a symbiotic relationship - my mom would get us out of her hair and the neighbors would get a crack at "saving" evil Catholics. LOL. They thought the children's game maker Milton Bradley was evil because they made that game "Green Ghost."

I'll never forget the "breaking bricks for Jesus" karate guy and the cicada guy.

[charlie]

15. I've known a bunch, too

I had a boss who'd tell anyone who held still long enough about how he'd cured his diabetes through prayer. And to emphatically show us the result of pious living, half his lunch would be candies, cakes, or pastries. He'd be twice as stupid at twice the speed for the rest of the day.

[MUAD_DIB]

10. How was it? The cicada?

[DUgosh]

2. We have them here in the Texas Hill Country

You can use them for fish bait

[hfojvt]

3. sign on Noah's ark

"Tell the cicadas to shut up"

I always called them chick-ad-ahs, gringo that I am. Sometimes people correct me with sick-aida, which I think is just sick.

But it's just not summer without the cicadas screaming overhead.

[Annces]

4. I love them

I hope they hit Wisconsin.

[brer cat]

8. Me too.

We moved last year from a house by National Forest to a townhouse, and we really miss them. I love their song/call/whatever it is.

[Annces]

13. Here is a clip of them if you are feeling nostalgic

http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/Michigan_Cicadas/Michigan/WAVsounds/sdecimCIII.WAV


http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/Michigan_Cicadas/Michigan/Index.html

[brer cat]

17. Thanks, but we have no sound on our computer!

I want to hear them up close and personal! lol

[Robbien]

5. We have them here in the mid-west all the time

These are just the 17 year ones joining in with the rest of the annual Cicadas. But usually they don't start until about June.

The noise they make is awful. And they are really really ugly bugs.

[Ioo]

7. We had them a few years ago in the DC area. You can eat them you know!

I went to a place that served them

[Swamp Rat]

9. Imagine if they mutated and became blood thirsty carnivores.

:D

[City Lights]

11. Last time they were here in the Chicago area I camped with them.

Talk about a creep show. At first it was cool to watch them, but after 24 hours of it, we'd had enough. They were everywhere. They attached themselves to anything and everything, including my friend's back. When we told him there was one on his back, he jumped up and started screaming, "Get it off me! Get it off me!" :rofl: Sunday morning we packed up and got the hell out of there.

[StarryNite]

16. It's a sign!

Here in AZ hearing them is a sign that the summer monsoon season is starting.

[eppur_se_muova]

18. There are more cicada recipes than I really care to know about ...

El Chirper Tacos

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter or peanut oil

1/2 pound newly emerged cicadas

2 serrano chilies, raw, finely chopped

1 tomato, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 tsp ground pepper or to taste

1/2 tsp cumin

3 tsp taco seasoning mix

1 handful cilantro, chopped

Taco shells, to serve

Sour cream

Shredded cheddar cheese

Shredded lettuce

Directions

1. Heat the butter or oil in a frying pan and fry the cicadas for 10 minuts, or until cooked through.

2. Remove from pan and roughly chop into 1/4-inch cubes/ Place back in pan.

3. Add the chopped onions, chilies and tomato, season with salt, and fry for another 5 minutes on medium-low heat.

4. Sprinkle with ground pepper, cumin and oregano to taste.

5. Serve in taco shells and garnish with cilantro, sour cream, lettuce and cheddar cheese.

Cicada Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped rhubarb

1 cup fresh cicadas, washed and any hard parts removed

1 1/3 cups white sugar

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon butter

1 recipe pastry for a 9-inch double crust pie

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle one-fourth of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle cicadas in amongst the rhubarb. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. Cover with top crust.

3. Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes.

Yield:

Makes 1 pie (8 servings)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1866011

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cicada+recipe&btnG=Google+Search

[Arkansas Granny]

19. When I was a kid growing up in the Midwest, we would sometimes

find one crawling on the ground looking for a place to moult and emerge as fully adult. It was fascinating to put them in a jar with a piece of wood for them to grab hold of and watch them push their way out of the shell. I did the same with my kids and they were spellbound. Imagine four kids sitting around the table staring at a glass jar watching a large insect emerge from a shell. Talk about your cheap entertainment.

[Zookeeper]

36. My kids and I have done that with Butterflies...

although it's difficult to know when they will emerge, so we'd usually arrive home to find the new arrival.

Here's to cheap entertainment! :toast:

[AnnieBW]

20. Have fun!

We had Brood X back in 2004. Ick.

[liberalnurse]

21. I thought they only came up every 7 years...

and we just had them about 2-3 years ago in Ohio....:shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. There are several different types.

[smirkymonkey]

22. I can't think of anything that would freak me out more.

[IDemo]

23. Here, we have Mormon crickets

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/story?id=2124982&page=1



Hang on, a couple of them are at the door...

[Connie_Corleone]

24. We already had them here in Ohio 2 years ago.

15 years to go. Hopefully, I'll be on a 2 month vacation somewhere else by then. I can't stand those damn things.

[InvisibleTouch]

25. I love cicadas!

We used to call them "locusts" as kids, but of course they're not. One of the most long-lived invertebrates, with a fascinating life-cycle. They make great music in the summer, and I hope we get a nice crop of them in Ohio too.

[Ghost in the Machine]

28. Locusts are just so... so.... Old Testament.

Cicadas are the New World Order of insects! :rofl:

[KharmaTrain]

26. I'm 3 Cicadas Old...LOL

The first happened the year I was born (so I guess that doesn't count) I remember them in 1973...they were everywhere...I remember the crunching sound wherever one walked.

In '90, that was a dissapointment. Many of their habitat in this area had been disturbed by building and urban sprawl...the forest preserves were the only area to really see them.

I'll be interested to be "invaded" again...it doesn't last long, but it's awesome when it happens.

Cheers...

[B Calm]

27. They are wonderful fish bait. The fish in my pond love eating them.

[Atman]

29. I remember my cat bringing a live one into the house in her mouth.

Florida gets lots of 'em. One day my cat came in acting "funny"...then this freaky noise started coming out of her head and she jumped around shaking her head. She has a still-live cicada in her mouth. It was kinda gross hearing her finally chomp it and gulp it down.

.

[boobooday]

30. I hope that isn't here . . .

We just had the 17 year cicadas here in Southern Indiana. . . or is this a different brood? It was only two or three years ago.

They were fascinating. They had many different colors of eyes! Watching them go through their cycle was really mind-boggling. 17 years waiting for sex!

When we first moved to the Midwest from California, and my husband heard the traditional "Dog Day Cicadas" of late August, he said it reminded him of being a child, and having a neighbor kid talk him into sniffing gasoline too close. He said that was the sound it made in his head.

And of course, it is the traditional "UFO" sound from all the old 50's movies as well . . .

[spacelady]

32. These are amazing beasts - I used to catch them and tie a little

thread lasso around their heads and they would be like a little flying pet. I suppose that sounds cruel now...oh well summer fun in the midwest.

[Berry Cool]

33. I was in a 17-year cicada country one spring for an emergence

Most godawful thing you ever saw. Like living in a bad Japanese monster movie. They were everywhere. You couldn't walk on the sidewalks without stepping all over them, dead and alive. Empty shells and squashed carcasses everywhere. But worst of all was the singing. The constant, high-pitched, screechy, nonstop singing, up in the trees all day long in the heat. You couldn't hear anything else for the singing.

[Tinksrival]

34. This video is so cool!

Check it out:

Return of the 17-Year Cicadas

http://www.bio.indiana.edu/~hangarterlab/broodx/broodxmovies/NSFmovie.htm

[lynne]

35. Check some online recipes -

- I remember talk about how good they were to eat the last time they showed up.

[Zookeeper]

37. I won't admit how many times I've been around for....

cicadas, but I hope they make it to Minnesota, 'cause it's quite an experience. :)