Cicadas

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  • 05-17-2004, 08:48 PM
    walterick
    2 Attachment(s)
    Cicadas
    For those of you aren't blessed with these... creatures, I thought I'd post a few shots of what the entire DC area is being inundated with right now. They scream, they fly around, crash into your windshield, shed themselves on your house, trees, car, whatever. They are <i>grody.</i> Rumor has it this is the year that the 17-year and the 13-year cicada are synchronised. How lucky for us.

    These are shots of their shells, after they crawl up out of the ground and turn into flying aliens. They look pretty creepy live - I'll try to get a few of those, too.

    Anyone else going through the joy of Cicadaville with me, please feel free to post in here too.

    1.) Our trees looks like this.
    2. Our flowers look like this.
  • 05-17-2004, 08:54 PM
    darkrainfall
    Ick! I just read an article about a man who got sick from eating these things, and there are cookbooks on how to cook these. How can anyone eat these things?
  • 05-17-2004, 09:18 PM
    walterick
    Don't know, but...
    I have several friends whose dogs are getting sick from eating them (20-30 at a time!)
  • 05-17-2004, 09:26 PM
    kkraczek
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by walterick
    I have several friends whose dogs are getting sick from eating them (20-30 at a time!)

    eww eww eww! How big are these things? I don't think we get them down here. (or should I say, I HOPE we don't get them down here!)
  • 05-18-2004, 04:52 AM
    Lara
    I echo Kristen and Tiffany .........ewwwwwwww and Ick!!! I'll add another "Gag" Why would anyone want to eat bugs? Now I'm not hungry for my breakfast an more :p

    How long do they stay around?
  • 05-18-2004, 05:09 AM
    walterick
    Size and duration
    Kristen: they're about an inch and half long. I really wanna shoot a live one - they're just... so... WEIRD.

    Super-Lara: I don't know how long they're supposed to last. The amount of time between the first one I saw and their media-described "peak" was only about 3 days. So maybe they're on their way out...

    We'll be mowing over and sweeping up Cicada shells for weeks though :eek:
    Give John a big kiss for me. ;)
  • 05-18-2004, 05:49 AM
    Lara
    "Give John a big kiss for me."

    LOL Rick, I would but, check out my location. Over 2700 miles, as the crow flies,is a little to far to do that. But it doesn't prevent me from bugging (pun intended) John when PR members have an issue with the site.

    I have this vision of a huge vacuum cleaning up the streets. Hey, someone should start up a business... "Cicada sucker uppers" Although every 17 years is a long time to wait for the next job, heh.
  • 05-18-2004, 05:54 AM
    Liz
    Destruction in their path.........
    I haven't seen any this year (thank goodness). My memories of these ugly creatures are that they destroyed so many trees when I lived in a suburban area. You could hear them at night eating the leaves. It used to keep me awake because I knew they were destroying the trees. By the time they left, most of the leaves on the huge gorgeous trees on our road were dead. I wonder why they're not around here this year (fingers crossed, with a little prayer). And no, I don't miss them! :rolleyes:

    Liz

    1.) Our trees looks like this.
    2. Our flowers look like this.[/QUOTE]
  • 05-18-2004, 06:33 AM
    megan
    Tent caterpillars
    I remember a BIG tent caterpillar infestation when I was a teen. I lived in East Fishkill, NY, and was surrounded by the beautiful Adirondack mountains [quiet, there, all you West Coast folks. Our mountains are older and worn down <LOL>]. All you could see for miles was brown trees with white tents in them - patches of devastation from miles away. Poor, bald mountains. Nature is an amazing force, eh?

    Megan
  • 05-18-2004, 07:57 AM
    natatbeach
    my first and only fight
    was started by one of these...disgusting/creepy/make your skin crawl/the hairs on your neck stand on end--- as icky as they may be I couldn't watch on as people picked them up and plucked their eyes out to watch them fly around and into things. :eek: .
    .... so after warning a close friend and football player not to be sadistic...little ole me (at the time I was a freshman 5'4 and 120lbs) jumped on his back and went ghetto on him and punched him in the eye in the process...we remained friends and he became a cicada saving advocate....and swore that touching cicadas were dangerous to your health( well at least if I was around)

    sometimes you gotta be a little pro active to get the point across :rolleyes:

    Positive note: I no longer solve problems that way :D

    I have a strange sort of compassion for these guys...I think that if I slept for seventeen years it would sorta suck to wake up to things plucking off your wings and stepping on you just cuz you woke up to get a little action-procreate and go back to bed....

    think about it...

    Good pics Rick
  • 05-18-2004, 08:24 AM
    ACArmstrong
    Oh yeah...
    These buggers are everywhere! I shot this a couple of weeks ago - this is the fully hatched version.

    http://gallery.photographyreview.com...82cicada01.jpg

    It's over in the Photo Project Gallery - ya know - the place where no one looks! ;) LOL
  • 05-18-2004, 08:54 AM
    natatbeach
    Ma
    I didn't realize you're in MAssachusetts...cool.
  • 05-18-2004, 10:28 AM
    racingpinarello
    1 Attachment(s)
    Live Sucker...
    This one landed, and before Jack (little boy) stepped on it I took this picture. Using a 16-35 doesn't lead to good macro shots, but I cropped it.

    Loren
  • 05-18-2004, 12:19 PM
    Lara
    Yes Natalie I'm very close to you. :) I was waiting for you to notice lol. Your Cicada story cracked me up for sure! But I have absolutely no sympathy for them, bleck :P

    Loren, Andy ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww That's one scary bug! Great photos, but YUCK!
  • 05-18-2004, 12:44 PM
    Asylum Steve
    East FISHKILL, eh?
    Megan,

    My, what a beautiful sounding town to live in. NOT... :D

    I thought when you mentioned Fishkill that maybe it was near the East River. I seem to remember seeing a lot of dead fish floating there. Not to be nosey, but how did you manage ot make your way down from upstate NY to Da Bronx?

    BTW, was E. Fishkill anywhere near Schroon Lake? My dad took us up there a couple of summers when I was a kid. I loved it...

    Keep your Rockies and your Sierra Nevadas, I always had a thing for the Adirondacks... :)
  • 05-18-2004, 08:12 PM
    walterick
    Me either!
    I thought you were sitting upstairs in Consumerreview.comland in San Jose.

    I am coming through that part of the world in June. Check the Boston mini-thread and I would love to have you meet with us!
  • 05-18-2004, 08:14 PM
    walterick
    Good shots guys!
    I wanna get one of them before they leave.

    Did I mention these things are <i>loud?!</i> I have to raise my voice to talk to people when I'm outside. They sound like screaming, tortured people sometimes.
  • 05-18-2004, 09:18 PM
    natatbeach
    genetics gone wrong
    You just have to feel for them...a face only a mother could love:(
  • 05-18-2004, 09:20 PM
    natatbeach
    And they say women are loud
    and talk a lot

    ALL the noise is from the males looking for chicks( or would that be cics - HA get it??
    I crack myself up!)...I guess they aren't so different from humans...
  • 05-19-2004, 04:16 AM
    Lara
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by walterick
    I thought you were sitting upstairs in Consumerreview.comland in San Jose.

    I am coming through that part of the world in June. Check the Boston mini-thread and I would love to have you meet with us!

    Thanks Rick..I would have loved to meet you guys. Unfortunately I can't make it for the mini gathering in June. :(

    BTW, The office isn't in San Jose any more. Hasn't been for a long time :) It is in the San Francisco area, Foster City.
  • 05-19-2004, 05:16 AM
    megan
    [QUOTE=Asylum Steve]Megan,

    My, what a beautiful sounding town to live in. NOT... :D QUOTE]

    kill = Dutch for stream. The area I lived in was an early Dutch settlement, and has many odd-sounding names - many Dutch names and many Indian names i.e. Fishkill, Walkill, Poestenkill, Van Wyck, Wappingers; Poughkeepsie, Poughquag, etc.etc. It actually was a beautiful area to grow up in - I lived in exurbia, and was close to many farms. I'ts gotten a lot more "developed" since. Actually, I lived in the area of Gayhead in the Hamlet of Hopewell Junction in the town of East Fishkill. Have fun with those :p

    I've heard of Schroon lake, I'm not sure where it is - I'm thinking it's a bit more upstate, like in Rensallaer [another Dutch name] in that lake district where my gramma lived - a lot of lakes, a lot of summer houses.

    Megan
  • 05-19-2004, 08:35 AM
    Mig
    Hey watch it bub!

    That's right there's not one, but two PR members from East Fishkill, NY. Now I live farther north and on the other side of the Hudson River in Kingston, which is NY State's original capital. Schroon Lake is even farther north - a little past Albany.

    Danielle
  • 05-19-2004, 09:45 AM
    megan
    Aha! I was right - sort of.
    I thought Schroon Lake was in the Albany area! I just didn't think it was that far north. Must be closer to Lake George.

    Megan
  • 05-19-2004, 10:01 AM
    megan
    Correction
    I believe the surrounding mountains were part of the Appalachians, not the Adirondacks.

    mg
  • 05-19-2004, 11:26 AM
    walterick
    women ARE loud...
    and you all do talk a lot. :D But something got screwed up in the evolution scheme, see, cuz in the rest of nature <i>we're</i> the pretty ones and <i>you all</i> are ugly now with humn beings, it's the other way around :p