Scarlet Pimpernel

Oh my...I had forgotten (since last year) that today was @H2O's birthday! Happy birthday to you, enjoy celebrating whatever anniversary of your 29th this may be!!

It's very odd how they seem to all come out in one place but not another. I guess it depends on where the eggs were laid in 2004, among other things. They also seem to come up at different times, even places very close to each other.

OMG...so sorry to hear that! I hope your dad will be OK...

So that small wooded area across the street from me apparently got warm enough over the past couple of days. After no indication of anything other than a lot of holes for awhile, they are now coming out in droves there (see images). Also seeing widespread nymphs emerging around several trees where I am. Pretty certain I heard them singing late this afternoon too.

I heard some about this, too...really weird! A fungus that turns you into a sex crazed zombie!! Sounds like a bad 1950s B-rated sci-fi flick that @ravensrule might recommend!

Well, you do know that the Enterprise-D ran on cicada juice, right?! Billions of them living in the warp drives! (ETA: They worked better than tribbles! )

Same here...there's a lot of nearby construction going on and at times I swear I hear what must be distant singing of the cicadas when some of the "construction noise" is lesser. But hard to tell. Can't tell how far away it is, but imagine they'll get right up nearby soon.

Pretty certain I heard at least one yesterday afternoon. Had the classic "Phaaaa-rooooh" sound. But not much else other than that. Maybe they're tuning up here! Or maybe that one was more like singing "Diiii-nnner!" to all the birds and was gone shortly after!! I've seen a lot of picked-at "meals" left on the ground that's for sure! Seen many emerging right around the apartment property I live at, but surprisingly not so much as an exoskeleton seen in a couple of older and undisturbed wooded areas. If anything, I'd think there'd be a ton in there. Maybe still relatively too cool there, but I'm sure this week it will be warming up.

And it's one of the best parodies I've seen! Even down to the equivalent of hard-core "Trekkies" at those Sci Fi conventions!

@mappy...Saw "Galaxy Quest" the other day, it was on our Netflix list (yeah, a disk!) and happened to come up! I haven't seen it in a few years, so fun to watch it again and be reminded of the great lines and scenes in there (especially those with Alan Rickman). I still like the references to the Galaxy Quest TV show being considered "Historical Documents"!!! LOL!!!

It ain't starting 'till the fat cicada sings!!

Saw a lot more coming out again last night on a couple of trees. But a little odd how some have almost nothing while others have a ton. Grass near those trees was also covered with them crawling out. The wooded area across the street from where I'm at, haven't seen any indication even of shells, though there are a LOT of holes there (approx. index finger size or so). I'm assuming those are cicadas waiting to come up...maybe it's like others said, the more shaded areas are slightly cooler still and so they haven't emerged yet (and it's quite shaded in there). Seen a few "fully" done ones, but no singing yet that I can definitely confirm. At times yesterday I thought I heard a distant "roar" of the chorus but could be something else.

Tiniest hurricane I've ever seen!!

Has DT issued a "FINAL call" with a map yet??

Nice! So it's like an Easter egg hunt, only a quest for red bug-eyes!!

I suppose instead of deck pics for cicadas...we get tree pics!! ETA: That's actually what some trees around where I'm at have started to look like the past couple of nights.

Meh. Everyone knows how this plays out in the end. You and @psuhoffman will end up with the best cicada-death-bands when everyone else gets cicada-slotted at some point!

A few trees covered with emerging cicadas this evening. And saw several also coming out of the grass. Have seen a few fully out mature ones the past couple of days (black with the clear orange wings). A couple from this evening:

Haha, yeah! Though the cicadas are somewhat cuter and far less dangerous!! (ETA: I mean, you gotta love the Groucho Marx eyebrows they have!)

Hey, even this guy wore a mask, though it doesn't completely cover his whole mouth and nose!!

Couple more photos from them emerging the other night... Synchronized emerging! A new Olympic sport? Damn Soviet judges deducted 2 points for no reason! And, wings spreading out...

Could be that the cooler first part of this month played a role. What's interesting is that I looked back at the photos I have from the 2004 emergence, and I recall that May being quite warm. In looking at the dates on the photos when they were really starting to emerge, it was around May 18. And they were going full bore not long after that. For some reason, I had thought it was a lot earlier than that in May 2004 but apparently not. There are plenty of places nearby where I'm at that have not been developed, they're sort of wooded areas around a creek and such. I'm sure nearly all those trees are a fair bit older than 17 years and were left "undisturbed". But thus far haven't seen anything from there yet, other than the holes I mentioned above. The trees where I have seen with them coming out, strangely enough, are on and right near the apartment property I live at...but those trees are pretty old too, and there hasn't been any development here in that time. Maybe it's a bit warmer (or just enough so) with more sun getting in there, compared to the more wooded regions.

Well that's great for you and your family. But there are plenty of people for whom the risk is much greater for serious effects, and I know several who could be in that group. Why is it so hard for people to understand that you personally taking a risk with this is not the same as deciding to go sky diving or bungee jumping. Which really only affects *you*. A virus can affect anyone around you. Much like smoking. There's a lot still not fully understood about COVID, including various other disorders that people have presented with later on even with a relatively mild case. And don't forget all the variants that are now flying around...the more you don't stop it, the more chance there is of mutations. Fortunately so far, the vaccine has been shown to be effective against these, from what I understand.

Mmmmmm, Krispy Kreme!!! That's some good donuts right there! What's interesting about the shots is that I really didn't feel much of anything with the actual shot, I don't know if they use a smaller needle or what. But definitely not the same as when you get blood work or even a flu shot, where you can really feel it.