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Cicadas 2021 - Brood X


FXW176
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4 minutes ago, toolsheds said:

Dumb question here...how do you swallow a cicada?

 

They are huge!

We were both racing back then and on a training ride. Heading up a hill and he was breathing hard and *snap* straight down his gullet. He was off his bike in a hurry and tried choking it up but it was gone. Pretty awesome.

Also, I don’t think the brood X’s are that big. I mean they’re big, but not huge,

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Was out with a flashlight a little while ago.  I did see some new ones crawling in the tree that I saw some earlier today.  This tree and ground around it gets the most sunlight so not surprised I don't have any in the woods/side yard yet.

What I saw gazillions of in my flashlight beam was pollen grains. 

Wow...it's really bad out there.

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Took a walk last night after hearing reports of some trees with plenty on them. Can confirm that probably every 15 houses or so had a tree out front that had a decent number of them (some with a truly impressive number), with the grass containing lots of shells and adults that had fallen off the trees.

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11 minutes ago, dailylurker said:

I live in a very wooded area in AA County and haven't seen hardly a sign of them. 1987 was crazy. 2004 wasn't nearly as bad. I wonder if the population is decreasing around the edges of the normally effected area. 

It’s too soon to make any guess at this.

My now in-laws' place in Herndon was insane in 2004. Can't imagine it was any "worse" (better) in 1987.

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41 minutes ago, mattie g said:

Took a walk last night after hearing reports of some trees with plenty on them. Can confirm that probably every 15 houses or so had a tree out front that had a decent number of them (some with a truly impressive number), with the grass containing lots of shells and adults that had fallen off the trees.

Picture of an emergent adult from last night. Plenty of others out there, but I felt like a weirdo shining a flashlight on a neighbors’ tree and taking a picture. :lol:4E7E0064-A984-4DF3-AB0E-1CFCF6CF05FA.thumb.jpeg.1d27a6749d21695492389094609930b5.jpeg

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Neighbor convo:

"Hey, Karen, look at that weirdo next to that tree.  What is he doing? Taking pictures of a tree? This neighborhood is going to hell!"

"Chad, I think he's checking for cicadas. Its not that weird.  its been 17 years since they last came out. Thats more often than we have sex."

 

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1 hour ago, mattie g said:

Took a walk last night after hearing reports of some trees with plenty on them. Can confirm that probably every 15 houses or so had a tree out front that had a decent number of them (some with a truly impressive number), with the grass containing lots of shells and adults that had fallen off the trees.

It is wild how variable it is.

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2 minutes ago, MN Transplant said:

It is wild how variable it is.

It really is. Might be to do with exactly how much sunlight those areas of lawn get compared to others, so the cicadas in those spots are emerging earlier. Might be that certain trees had more eggs laid on them 17 years ago. I wonder if some people were also cleaning up the fallen branches that contain eggs, which is something I’ll try not to do this year.

I will say that I’ve seen plenty of emerging cicadas and holes under large rocks and slabs around my house and our next-door neighbor’s house, but not nearly as many holes in uncovered spots just yet. Probably just need to wait for the uncovered areas to warm up enough so that they start coming out.

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if you're curious to who has reported sightings near you, there's a map for that!

https://cicadamap.msj.edu/

Also highly recommend downloading the Cicada Safari App, developed by Mount St Joseph University in Cincinnati (also creator of the map). You can take pics, upload your locations, etc. and they will end up on the map. 

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1 hour ago, dailylurker said:

I live in a very wooded area in AA County and haven't seen hardly a sign of them. 1987 was crazy. 2004 wasn't nearly as bad. I wonder if the population is decreasing around the edges of the normally effected area. 

I was thinking: since 2004 there has been a huge amount of development in the mid-Atlantic. I wonder if that will affect the population overall, but it's too soon to know.

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1 hour ago, H2O said:

Neighbor convo:

"Hey, Karen, look at that weirdo next to that tree.  What is he doing? Taking pictures of a tree? This neighborhood is going to hell!"

"Chad, I think he's checking for cicadas. Its not that weird.  its been 17 years since they last came out. Thats more often than we have sex."

 

Good work H2O, you just dumped your screen name on a lot of Dormant relationships. As always...

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12 hours ago, dailylurker said:

Found my first shells today. Only place I found them was under a black chestnut tree. Interesting critters they are.

The album of videos I posted here yesterday was apparently a preview of today's big show. Just went out under the giant oak IMBY where I shot those videos, and the ground immediately around, and about 4 feet out from the trunk was almost boiling with nymphs hauling ass for the tree trunk -- at least 10x as many as I saw yesterday. This fascinates me, as I missed most of this the last time Brood X made a visit!

I did my part to save 15-20 of the nymphs at least a little travel time, by lifting them up from ground level to about 6 feet up the tree trunk, the level of the tree they seem to best love to start their molts. I'm guessing I shaved about 30-40 minutes off the trip for that small group...but there were sooooo many more. Felt like I should do that to give them a fighting chance, as there was a small group of crows hanging out around that tree this morning, gorging themselves on the cicada buffet. I'm sure they'll be back tomorrow morning...and many mornings to come.   :) 

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10 hours ago, Always in Zugzwang said:

Are we in NAM range yet?? :lol:

Nothing here that I've seen, other than some holes near several trees.  I guess it's getting close now.

We prolly have similar microclimates, my yard has holes near trees, but I haven't seen any live ones. My yard is mostly shaded by two large poplar trees though.  In warmer spots around the 'hood (that get full day sun) we have spotted a few on the trees.

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