Maybe this isn't as far off topic as it might seem.

The 17 year Brood X cicadas are out here in all their noisy, in every direction, glory. They have taken over, exactly as predicted.

I have NEVER seen such a display of entomology in my life. Absolutely facinating.

The trunks of old growth trees are coverd with the amber husks left over after the grubs crawled out of the ground and molted, and the resultant clumsy, slow flying, dive bomber hulks are everywhere. Zillions of them. You can simply reach out and just pluck them from the air. They are not shy in the least, but are harmless. Hold out your hand and they will land in your palm - scarlet red eyes staring st you. Other worldly. Ancient. Prehistoric. It would be fitting to see a dinosaur waltz around the corner of the house.

And the noise. It's hard to describe. It's sorta like a drone, background sound that would be used in a sci fi movie for a spaceship sound. Constant and surrounding and strangely appropriate. Similar to the drone of the surf at the beach - it comes from every direction. If you walk towards where you think it's coming from, by the time you get there, it seems to be coming from where you were.

Some things on this rock are gonna happen no matter what we do. Our influence is powerless. We cannot control it, we cannot stop it, we cannot change it. All we can do is watch and wonder and keep our beers covered. Worrying about when the noise will stop or hoping it never does - there's nothing we can do other than watch and swat. Hey, let's give them a break - waiting 17 years for sex - they deserve our tolerance.

A good reminder, perhaps.

WAT

<small>[ May 22, 2004, 03:44 PM: Message edited by: worthatry ]</small>

"-waiting 17 years for sex-"....
hmmmmmmm

Me too! I was 17 my 1st time.... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

But I did not make the same noise..... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="images/icons/shocked.gif" />

Does all this buggy stuff in the air drive the pets crazy? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" />

I read that these critters make a yummy snack. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" />
yech!

Pep <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="images/icons/cool.gif" />

A couple of years ago we had a very dry winter and spring - and as a result we had SWARMS of grasshoppers. The old timers in the area who remembered the dust bowl and the swarms of years past said that this was WORSE. You couldn't drive down the road without a cloud of them in front of you. They ate everything and when they were done with that they started eating the houses and trees. They ate our crops and our fields and my FLOWERS! I don't care HOW many years they went without sex - I hope they STAY AWAY!

Did someone say beer? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />

Hope4future...

Please look at thread by

I am so sorry

I think she could use your friendly advice.

Pep

My weenie dig scarfed one up off the sidewalk this morning. According to the news reports, they are harmless to eat for both dogs and toddlers. "This may be the happiest summer in their tail wagging life!"

Strange thing - you also see cicada body parts on the ground. Birds take a bite and discard the rest, just to move on to another live one. Supply and demand.

Gormet D.C. restaurants are serving them sauteed in butter and garlic. I think I'll pass - maybe good fish bait.

Yes, I think I'll have another beer - covered.

WAT

I haven't eaten one either. But when I look at the ones that haven't molted yet, they're similar enough to crayfish and shrimp that I can understand (intellectually) that others might.

DD and I spent half an hour outside in the midst of the noise today. My ears were ringing when we came back inside. Dang, but they are LOUD when they really get going.

The thing that amazes me is the myriad golden wings on the ground. Beautiful, really -- like fairies came through and dropped something as they passed.

The cicadas themselves, though, WAT's got it right. Prehistoric.

Oh, and beer? Pete's Rally Cap Ale at the moment. Cold, fresh, and drunk INSIDE where no cicadas can come visiting.

JJ - can you describe the sound better than I? It's not what I expected and hard to describe. Maybe the cicada version of "white noise." A chorus of a zillion individuals who don't care what time they're keeping.

The noise. Well.... I'll try. The alien spaceship thing is close. For those who want something a little more tangible....

Take the crickets you hear every night throughout the entirety of North America.

Turn up the volume.

Bring the pitch down a half a step or so.

Make it come from EVERY direction.

Make it so loud that even with the doors shut and the AC on, you can still hear it.

Then add, from the ones that are close by, chirps that sound more like a cricket than anything else.

And then pretend you're in the middle of a jungle because there are THAT MANY BUGS around you. (Think of that Expedia commercial with the mosquito netting.)

And then go back inside.

"scarlet red eyes staring st you"

Like the nemotodes in "Red Planet"?

<img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

17 years of NC???? Yet they are swarming all over the place? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="images/icons/shocked.gif" /> Can you imagine what it w/b like if they did it once a year?!??!? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="images/icons/shocked.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />

When I woke up this morning, I lay in bed for a few minutes and listened to the cicadas. (Yes, the windows were closed and the AC on -- they're that loud). I thought about what they sound like.

Take one of those really old cars that's got a metallic whine. You know the noise, the one that makes you cringe when you hear it. Now make it GOD'S OWN automobile and make the noise come from EVERYWHERE.

That's what cicadas sound like.

Good Lord!

Make a recording J...

Then email me and I'll give you my phone # and I can hear these buggers. (but only if you want to)

WoW!

Pep

Hmmmm. I don't have a tape recorder. I'll see if my brother does. If so, we can probably put it into an .mp3 and e-mail it.

Of course, you don't get to hear MY lovely voice that way. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

.... wait. Surely someone has already done this. Let's see here.

Okay... try these.

This one is one cicada; it gives the type of the sound, but not the sheer magnitude of multiplying it by millions. Turn your speaker volume to about 2/3 of the way up to get the right level of noise.

http://www.antipixel.com/blog/archives/audio/cicadas_01.mp3

And THIS one really gets the effect of the brood "din" as the natural history museum calls it.

http://abbot.si.edu/highlight/cicadas/audio/distant_din.mp3

And this is a great combination of the din in combination with a close-by single singer.

http://abbot.si.edu/highlight/cicadas/audio/solo_serenades.mp3

How <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="images/icons/cool.gif" />

really weird and spooky

JJ - your word descriptions are far better than mine. The only metaphor I'll add now is to describe the sound to be Mother Nature's surround sound.

I made a recording using my camcorder. I believe I can save the soundtrack to a .wav file for attaching to an e-mail - maybe my evening project. It'll be stereo, but that won't do justice to the "surround" version.

WAT

Ya know, we live in the 17-year cicada realm, too, but so far, nada. Could it be the incredible rain, floods and tornados we have had in the last two weeks are keeping the buggers underground a bit longer here in the upper midwest? (Or maybe drowned them all on their way up for air and a little romance in the trees?)

I am somewhat dissapointed. Or maybe not.

We don't have air conditioning! might not be able to sleep at night!

~ Snow

WAT, I'd love an Email of that. I wouldn't know a Cicada if it bit me in the [censored]. And if it did, I'd like to know what sound would be coming from my [censored] if there was a Cicada attached to it. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />

Snow - I bet the ground hasn't warmed up enough yet. I live in the NW DC 'burbs and our bugs were slower coming out than the ones further east and south.

Nice try, but you won't be spared. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />

WAT

OK, I'll start working on the sound file. But Binder, if it bit you, it's not a cicada. More likely it flew into your [censored] because it thought it was a tree trunk? <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />