Is the summer of 2003 the year of the 17 year Cicadas qq

ahh thank u SilenceGold!!!!!

according to the chart (and looks like someone might be inaccurate on the year of the cicadas coming) im in the II, X and XIV categories which are indeed the 17 year cicadas
 
I've seen those...those are friggin ugly bugs :barf: UGH

Edit:

My mom and sister told me they make annoying noises..they can't stand them. Im so lucky I can't hear :rofl:
 
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:laugh2: :laugh2: Heather -- but they are quite interesting bugs LOL -- they are the ones with the MOST shortest life span it looks like

now u would be aware of when the next brood comes LOL
 
:rofl: YES thats true!!! my mom and sister would :o at the cicadas while im :zzz: peacefully and they have told me that is one example that they have ACTUALLY wished theyre deaf LOL
 
its actually coming in the year of 2004!!!!!

came across this article and thought to *bump* this thread cuz i remmied i had started this thread last year LOL -- so now its been corrected to be this year in 2004!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/03/0329_040329_cicadas.html

Cicada Invasion: Eastern U.S. Braces for Bug Swarm

John Roach
for National Geographic News
March 29, 2004

Get ready, Brood X is coming.
This May billions of black, shrimp-size bugs with transparent wings and beady red eyes will carpet trees in the U.S. from the eastern seaboard west through Indiana and south to Tennessee. By the end of June they'll be gone, not to be heard from or seen again for 17 years.

"Many people view them with horror or as an aberration and don't appreciate that they are a natural part of our eastern forests," said John Cooley, a cicada expert at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.

The bugs belong to the largest group, or brood, of periodical cicadas—insects that spend most of their lives as nymphs, burrowed underground and sucking sap from tree roots. They emerge once every 17 years, transform into adults, do the business of reproduction, and then die.

Periodical cicadas, like this adult, are insects that spend most of their lives burrowed underground. They emerge once every 13 or 17 years to reproduce and die. One of the largest broods, or groups, will emerge from underground early this summer.

Why are cicadas called locusts? What's the best way to prepare them as a meal? How can you distinguish between their different songs? These and other questions about this mysterious insect are answered in our Quick Facts About Periodical Cicadas

The cacophony of their courtship ritual disturbs suburban tranquility, and their nests can kill young tree branches. Females make slits in the branches and deposit their eggs inside. The process leaves many treetops with brown, dangling limbs flapping in the wind.

In addition to being a nuisance, the mass emergence aerates the soil, provides a feast to thousands of predators, prunes the treetops, and provides a pulse of nutrients into the environment, scientists say.

There are at least 12 broods of 17-year cicadas plus another three broods that emerge every 13 years. "A brood is a class year, like the graduates of 2004 who will be graduating this May," said Gene Kritsky, a biologist and cicada expert at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A brood emerges almost every year somewhere, sometimes overlapping with others. But none of the emergences matches the pure size of Brood X, which includes three cicada species: Magicicada septendecim, Magicicada cassini, and Magicicada septendecula.

Keith Clay, a biologist at Indiana University in Bloomington is engaged in a long-term study of the Brood X cicadas. He said people's reaction to the 17-year phenomenon runs from disgust to awe.

"Some people leave town and go west where there are no cicadas. Other people plan camping trips timed in the middle of the outbreak, because they want to experience it in its full intensity," he said.

Seventeen-Year Cycle

The emergence of the cicadas marks the beginning of the last weeks of life for nature's longest-lived insects.

Six to eight weeks after a female adult cicada performs her last, dying act—excavating a nest in a young tree branch and laying her eggs—her eggs hatch and the nymphs fall to the ground.

The cicada nymphs keep heading down, first grubbing on grass roots and then tunneling about 12 inches (30 centimeters) deeper to where they feed on small tree roots for the next 17 years.

"If you dig in the right place, you can find 30 to 50 nymphs in a hole about a foot square [0.1 square meter]," Cooley said.

After the cicadas have counted 17 years—"we really don't know how they count the years," Kritsky said—they are ready to emerge, which usually happens in late spring when the soil reaches a temperature of about 64° Fahrenheit (18° Celsius).

When twilight of their emergence day hits, the one-inch-long (2.5-centimeter-long) nymphs crawl out of their holes and up just about anything vertical—trees, barbecues, walls, tombstones.

Firmly latched onto the surface of their choice, the nymphs begin their overnight transformation into adults: youthful skin breaks open, milky-white cicada emerges, wings flush out, and the body darkens as it outer shell hardens.

This emergence also marks the beginning of a huge feast. "It's well known that pretty much everything starts chowing down on cicadas," Clay said. Dogs, cats, birds, squirrels, deer, raccoons, mice, ants, wasps, and, yes, humans make a meal of the insects.

According to Kritsky, the best time to eat a cicada is just after they break open their youthful skin. "When you eat them when they're soft and mushy, when they come out of their skin, they taste like cold, canned asparagus," he said.

Some scientists believe the mass emergence of the cicadas is part of a survival strategy. With so many of them, they collectively satiate their predators within a few days. Then the billions left uneaten are free to mate.

The business of finding a mate and reproducing is the sole purpose of the cicadas' short existence above the ground. It begins with the males flying to a sunny tree and, with thousands of their buddies, beating out a tune on their undersides.

"It's a high-energy activity, and they, much like a lizard basking in the sun, orient themselves to maximize sun exposure, which maximizes body temperature, which allows them to sing more vigorously and louder," Clay said.

When a male successfully attracts the attention of a nearby female, she will flick her wings as he finishes his song. A courtship dance ensues, with the male continuing to sing up until the physical act of copulation.

Shortly after mating, the male usually keels over and dies. The female buzzes off to excavate nests in a young twig for her 600 or so eggs. Once her egg supply is exhausted, the female dies. Six to eight weeks later, the eggs hatch and the 17-year cycle begins anew.

Cicada Studies

As this mass emergence of big black bugs strikes fear and awe in suburbia, the scientific community is ready to learn more about them. One of the scientists' big questions is what impact the bugs have on the environment.

Indiana University's Clay will cover some trees with netting so that the cicadas will not be able to mate and lay their eggs and thus the nymphs will not be able to burrow beneath the trees and feast on their roots for 17 years.

"If we eliminate cicadas from an area, does it have a significant effect on the forest, or is it a minor noise in the system?" Clay said. Within a few years, Clay hopes that a comparison of the health of the trees will yield an answer.

In the years to come, College of Mount St. Joseph's Kritsky will be looking at why some cicadas emerge early in their cycle, as did several hundred thousand Cincinnati members of Brood X in 2000.

The outbreak was big enough for the cicadas to satiate their predators, sing, mate, and lay eggs. "If [the year 2000 Cincinnati nymphs] come out in 2017, we will have seen the evolution of a whole new brood," Kritsky said. "That's cool."
 
the pix of the critter thats coming this year --
 

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i seen them few times in my backyard in silence alabama home when i was kid.. i did not see any more and wonder when will come back :lol:
 
Fly Free said:
is this summer gonna be the year for the 2003 onslaught of the 17 year cicadas qq

those little critters "births" from the ground only to call for a mating then once finish mating they die and they are around only for a week or so thereabouts if i recall right from when i was a kid (unfortunately i dont recall how old i was when i first saw them!!)

did u know ppl would ACTUALLY collect the cicadas and eat them qq :shock:

this summer is 2003???????? shit, whatcha got? a time machine?

edit: my bad, i didnt read the day you posted it.
 
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*standing and waiting for them to come out* hee hee.. here Scuba Eric comes *evil grins*

i can't wait to pet them and get them in the cage.. and bring it over to fly free :D what a lovely surprise :devil:
 
Noise...

Actually its more like a ... click, screech, click, screech...u got it. Mom has likened it to fingernails on a blackboard...Ive heard them, they often make an echo in my hearing aid...*sigh*...I dont wear it at night tho.

They've invaded as far west as Missouri now...I remember going up to Hannibal, MO and they were hundreds and hundreds of them...yuck what a mess on my car!!! Try scraping them off yourself...you gotta do it by hand, cuz an automated car wash can't even get the shyt off!

This year we expect them to come out as far as Columbia, MO...yoicks.

Love,
DD
 
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