About a week ago, when the Brood II Cicadas began showing up around here, it was exciting to see their transformations from nymph to adult.I was snapping photos and was actually hoping I'd be able to find one in the process of 'being born' (aka 'exiting it's exoskeleton). I had captured holes in the ground with nymphs crawling out and up trees.
A couple of days later, I was able to capture a 'birth', and I marveled at the whole process--using adjectives like fascinating, marvelous, miraculous.
Skip ahead a few days until today. I've had it! They are everywhere, literally everywhere in my yard and gardens! Their decomposing exoskeletons line the base of the trees and many still cling to the bark, still in the position they were in prior to the nymphs emerging.
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| (unmowed weeds in adjacent yard) |
Live adults line the inside basin of the portable basketball hoop...they cannot seem to find their way out.
I've simply had my fill and would like to request that they return to their holes in the ground from whence they came. But that isn't about to happen...so, I'll have to keep putting up with this slight interruption from 'regular gardening' for a few more weeks, I guess. The idea of hundreds, more like thousands, of these things lying around dead and rotting does not appeal to me! Enough is enough is enough!
Hanging from bottom of bird house...
On my front porch steps in the middle of the day!
Hanging from the overhang/roof of the front porch, right over the front door! No thank you...I don't want any!
All over the Alliums...
I caught this one swimming in the stream with this frog looking on, apparently unphased. I watched as it finally escaped from the water and climbed out on the rocks.
I've also seen a high number of deformed cicadas. Some only emerge half way from their exoskeleton and just die there. Others have only half-sized, tiny, bent wings and cannot fly, like this one:
Whatever. I'm over 'em. Now, if only they'd go away! I guess it could be another few weeks to a month before that will happen? Gardening is a little different, to say the least. When you come to visit, you will be welcomed...
...but watch your step and look over your shoulder, at least for now :)
Words and photos ©Thanks for today.™, by Jan Huston Doble @ http://www.thanksfor2day.blogspot.com/
Not to be reproduced or re-blogged without express permission of the author.
You got some great photos Jan, and I can see why you were so fascinated by them. But I can completely understand why you have had enough of them -- ewwwwwww!!!LOL!! Hope you don't have to put up with them too much longer.
ReplyDeleteFigure this out. The other brood was all around here. This year, I have seen 0 in my yard, while nearby Springfield, 5 miles away, is inundated with them.
ReplyDeleteRay
Holy smokes! I was going to say, Welcome to Texas, but even here I have never seen them that thick!!! Wow. We do live with their deafening cacophony all summer long, but I have just never seen them covering plants like this. Bless your heart!!!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! We've seen a few of their exoskeletons through the years, but I don't remember ever seeing what a katydid really looks like. I can't even imagine what the noise must be like around there with that many. YIKES! Their chirping to me means summer is here. The sound can be annoying at times, but then you get used to it.
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend ~ FlowerLady
I think I will take our yucky cold crappy weather...too many bugs are ewwww....I will have to battle J beetles soon enough.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's wild and creepy and fascinating and ... as gross as it seems now, I seriously wonder if the dead carcasses somehow provide nutrients to the soil. For this year's plants or for next year. I think the next time we have a brood here is in 2024. I wonder if I'll still be blogging then? ;-) Great photos, Jan!
ReplyDeleteYou got amazing photos. I've always heard about how they are everywhere but I've never really seen it as well as in your photos!
ReplyDeleteYour post was so fantastic I felt like I was right in the middle of the all the buzzing. I could feel the crunch of the remains under foot and could see myself picking the shells out of my flowers. I wonder if any of them are lurking under the ground here? If there are they will have to wait till later. We're going to have a cold night tonight! Well done Jan!!!!
ReplyDeleteEw, I'm with you! I would be fascinated at first, but by the end of the post I too was grossed out! We get cicadas every summer, so I'm not sure what the difference is, but I do like to hear that sound. It's the sound of summer to me.
ReplyDeleteOMG! I don't think I realized how big or how numerous the cicadas truly are; your photos really brought that home. Thank goodness it's only once every 17 years. (Although wasn't the Brood 1 year just a few years ago?) Come to Maine; we have our usual quotient of blackflies and mosquitoes, but no cicadas. :-) -Jean
ReplyDeleteExcellent pictures! I haven't heard any so far this year.
ReplyDelete