The Cicadas Strike Back: Brood X Reemerges after 17 Years

[San Lumen]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brood-x-ci ... -17-years/

After 17 years the largest cicada brood in North America will return. Over the next few weeks trillions of cicadas will emerge from the ground shed their skins and partake in a month-long mating ritual, making quite a scene — climbing trees and singing mating songs as loud as 100 decibels, the same intensity as a jackhammer. The broods range includes Delaware, Illinois, Georgia, Indiana, most of New York, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Michigan, as well as in Washington, D.C.

I remember when this happened back in 2004. I was at a event for my then future alma mater in Maryland and the cicadas were everywhere. The reemergence is getting much media coverage. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) declared May and June “Magicicada Months” to honor the cicadas that take over the region every 17 years.

In his formal declaration issued Friday, the governor explained the interest and importance of the insects while reminding citizens that they are harmless.

Your thoughts on this rare event NSG?

[Stellar Colonies]

I was only a child when this first occurred, so it'll be the first time this happens in living memory for me. It will certainly be interesting to see it unfold on social media, even if I'm across the continent away from this.

If this happened last year, it certainly would've been enfolded into the 2020 apocalypse joke and memed to oblivion. Still could.

[Chan Island]

I've had experience with cicadas in the Med and in Nepal. Even a solitary one of these bugs is a loud little bastard (especially when you catch it and try to examine it in your hand- I swear I kept hearing it for hours in my mind afterwards). A street full of them in Greece was enough to cross the threshold into annoying territory.

Let's just say this is a phenomenon that will be best enjoyed from really far away. I don't want to contemplate what a trillion of the bastards will sound like in person.

[Neutraligon]

Like I said in the other thread those things are loud and disgusting, especially when they all start dying in mass. And then there is the destruction they cause when they lay their eggs.

[Dakini]

Cicadas aren't too bad.

[Neutraligon]

Cicadas aren't too bad.

On their own or in small numbers, no. When they come in the numbers Brood X come in, they are.

[Fartsniffage]

Cicadas aren't too bad.

On their own or in small numbers, no. When they come in the numbers Brood X come in, they are.

What do they do other than make noise?

[Dakini]

On their own or in small numbers, no. When they come in the numbers Brood X come in, they are.

What do they do other than make noise?

They fuck.

[Galloism]

I may be entirely missing the importance, but why did I think this was on a 14 year cycle not 17?

[Grinning Dragon]

I may be entirely missing the importance, but why did I think this was on a 14 year cycle not 17?

Periodical cicadas occur in three pairs of species--each pair comprised of a 17-year and a 13-year species. (There are other cicadas, such as dog-day cicadas, which have only a four-year life cycle.) The periodical varieties look, sound and behave alike. The only characteristic distinguishing them from one another is the length of time they spend in the ground during the nymphal stages--either 13 or 17 years.

After cicada eggs hatch, the antlike nymphs quickly drop from the trees and burrow five to 46 centimeters (two to 18 inches) underground in search of tree roots to feed upon. After 13 or 17 years, a natural "clock," which remains a mystery to scientists, indicates that it is time to surface; the nymphs leave the ground, abandon their brown and brittle exoskeletons and ascend to the treetops to begin their constant buzzing calls. Mating occurs, eggs are laid and the cycle begins again.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... ence-betw/

[Galloism]

I may be entirely missing the importance, but why did I think this was on a 14 year cycle not 17?

Periodical cicadas occur in three pairs of species--each pair comprised of a 17-year and a 13-year species. (There are other cicadas, such as dog-day cicadas, which have only a four-year life cycle.) The periodical varieties look, sound and behave alike. The only characteristic distinguishing them from one another is the length of time they spend in the ground during the nymphal stages--either 13 or 17 years.

After cicada eggs hatch, the antlike nymphs quickly drop from the trees and burrow five to 46 centimeters (two to 18 inches) underground in search of tree roots to feed upon. After 13 or 17 years, a natural "clock," which remains a mystery to scientists, indicates that it is time to surface; the nymphs leave the ground, abandon their brown and brittle exoskeletons and ascend to the treetops to begin their constant buzzing calls. Mating occurs, eggs are laid and the cycle begins again.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... ence-betw/

Which is also wrong. I guess I got the cycles confused and "averaged" them in my head.

[San Lumen]

On their own or in small numbers, no. When they come in the numbers Brood X come in, they are.

What do they do other than make noise?

They mate and then the eggs they lay will hatch 17 years from now.

[Costa Fierro]

Y'all need yearly cicadas.

[Galloism]

What do they do other than make noise?

They mate and then the eggs they lay will hatch 17 years from now.

I don't think they stay in their eggs for 17 years.

[Farnhamia]

They mate and then the eggs they lay will hatch 17 years from now.

I don't think they stay in their eggs for 17 years.

No, they don't.

Here's a nice fossil one from the Jurassic ...

[Neutraligon]

On their own or in small numbers, no. When they come in the numbers Brood X come in, they are.

What do they do other than make noise?

Well, first the noise pollution is completely terrible. Second, they leave corpses...everywhere, and those corpses while I am sure the animals love them...stink and squishy and go splat when you step on them and their guts get everywhere. Plus there is the joy of trying to keep the dog from eating them. And then they lay their eggs in wholes in plants that tend to do a lot of damage to those plants. And they tend to be big bumbling buzzy things that fly around and somehow or another seem to always fly right past your ear which is freaky.

[Rusozak]

It's a bit melancholy for me as I had hoped my dog would have had a chance to partake in the "fun" but she passed on a year too early (she loved snatching bugs out of the air). I suppose I can still recreate my 17 year old memory of going to forest preserve to catch a bunch and try to introduce them to my neighborhood only for birds to immediately pick them off.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

I’m glad I’m not in AR anymore. I remember a summer a couple of years ago when their morning noise was so horrid I got headaches. I mean it’s fine, cycles and all, but I’ve heard this brood is colossal.

[Neutraligon]

I’m glad I’m not in AR anymore. I remember a summer a couple of years ago when their morning noise was so horrid I got headaches. I mean it’s fine, cycles and all, but I’ve heard this brood is colossal.

It is. This is accurate. A month like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWr8fzU ... l=BBCEarth

[San Lumen]

I’m glad I’m not in AR anymore. I remember a summer a couple of years ago when their morning noise was so horrid I got headaches. I mean it’s fine, cycles and all, but I’ve heard this brood is colossal.

Its the largest cicada brood in the United Staes by far.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

I’m glad I’m not in AR anymore. I remember a summer a couple of years ago when their morning noise was so horrid I got headaches. I mean it’s fine, cycles and all, but I’ve heard this brood is colossal.

It is. This is accurate. A month like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWr8fzU ... l=BBCEarth

So it begins.

[San Lumen]

It is. This is accurate. A month like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWr8fzU ... l=BBCEarth

So it begins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bzWSJG93P8

Very fitting music for this event.

[Heloin]

Something about a bug that grows up from a lifetime underground to scream and fuck for a month before dying really speaks to me.

[Xmara]

Dreading it already. I hate cicadas.

I remember there being another brood that emerged here around 2008, because I remember going to Camden Park with a friend and seeing cicada shells everywhere.

Mom is taking this time to remind me about the time we went on a picnic in a park towards the end of that cycle. A dead cicada fell out of a tree and landed on mom’s shoulder. I bolted to the car and locked myself in it. Didn’t even finish my food.

[Senkaku]

Honestly kinda sad I won’t be there for it, one of nature’s greatest shows and cicadas are like the one bug that don’t bother me. Just harmless bumbling little horndogs singing their hearts out for a few weeks in search of love, I say god bless

(That said the dead ones and the empty shells from moulting are fucking revolting)