Cicadas

Let's face it, cicadas are cool.

They look like little buses with wings and bulging eyes. And they make the most incredible din when they park themselves up in the trees and start singing for mates.

The cicada in the above picture is called the "dog day cicada" because it is at the height of its glory during the dog days of summer. These are annual cicadas, wintering underground and climbing the trees each summer to live out their brief, noisy lives.

Then, of course, there are the 13-year and 17-year cicadas--the ones that live underground for an incredible 13 or 17 years and then emerge to see daylight for only a few short weeks.

These are known as periodical cicadas, and they are much more dramatic looking than the annual cicadas, having red eyes.

Here is a wonderful picture of a periodical cicada:


The periodical cicadas have Brood numbers to determine which type they are and where they are likely to show up. Our area is visited every 17 years by Brood X (10).

I remember living in Fairfax, Virginia, when Brood X emerged in 1987. It was absolutely amazing. They were EVERYwhere! At first I tried to avoid running into them when I was driving, but I soon realized it was utterly impossible. They plastered the roads, the trees, the sidewalks. They flew into you when you weren't looking. Fortunately, cicadas are pretty cute and not at all gross, so people don't normally mind being landed on by a cicada.

And the noise! They seem to all sing in unison, unlike the dog day cicadas which sing individually. It was deafening.

Brood X emerged again in 2004. We were living in Damascus, Maryland, at the time, and for some reason they didn't come there at all. I don't know whether they visited Carroll County. They are next scheduled to appear in 2021.

There are people who think cicadas make tasty snacks if they're roasted. I think I would simply prefer to admire their enthusiastic song during the dog days of summer and snack on ice cream.

Interesting links:

The Mid-Atlantic Cicada database project has a Brood Map and seasonal reports.

Seventeenyearcicada.com has information and fabulous pictures. Many thanks to John Spina for the photos in this blog post.

Katydids

I love this time of year--the height of summer--when you can walk outside in the evening and hear a veritable ear-splitting cacaphony of insect noises.

At the top of the list is the katydid. It's a big vivid green (or sometimes pink) insect, related to the cricket and the grasshopper, that sits calmly on tree branches and makes deafening noises by rubbing its front wings together. The call of the male, answered by the softer response of the female, supposedly sounds like "katy did, katy didn't," which is how they got their name.

Katydids are related to crickets and grasshoppers. Most varieties eat plants, but some also eat other insects. In turn they are food for plenty of other critters, including spiders, frogs, and birds.

I have sometimes picked them up gingerly by the wings to move them when they flew into the house or barn, but I just learned that they can bite if not handled properly. Good to know that!

Katydids only live about a year. The female lays eggs on the underside of plant leaves, and the hatchlings look just like the adults, only smaller.

They usually prefer to hang out high up in the trees, but every now and then one will visit your window, where, especially if it's a male, you can have full appreciation of the sheer volume of music it can make.

It always amazes me that critters like katydids, cicadas, and crickets can make sounds that seem so far out of proportion to their size. Just imagine if human children could make that much noise.

Here are some fabulous pictures:

Katydid pictures