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Friday, July 8, 2011

Sickening Cicadas

Yesterday afternoon I had been standing under a cherry tree scanning up and down the block to see if any other neighbors would emerge from their homes to see why the power was out. It was a clear day, no thunder, no rumbles, yet the power switch had been shut off quickly and quietly. As I reached up to hold onto a branch my hand brushed something crunchy. I about jumped out of my skin when I saw a stream of alien-looking creature shells stuck to the branch.



After I fled inside and scrubbed my palm clean I ventured back out to see what the heck they were. I found a neighbor scratching her head also wondering why her air conditioner had cut off so called her over. She told me they were the skeletons of cicadas.



She also pointed to the holes in the ground and said that's where they emerge from.



My husband and I always thought those holes were underground yellowjack nests. Until I moved to Roanoke I never heard of cicadas. I'm not saying Brooklyn doesn't have them, although maybe they don't because they can't burrow through the concrete, but I am saying I don't remember hearing the loud, and I mean loud, and constant, and I mean constant, noise they make.

This is what a live cicada looks and sounds like...now multiply and raise the volume by 20 times. That's what I hear...every...single...summer...day.



And this is just wrong...



Ewwww...gross. Damn, you could put a leash on that thing. I hope that wasn't the kid's mother taping, and this is not a normal Tennessee toy.

4 comments:

  1. Years ago, a friend of mine moved to the south from New York City. She told me that she lived right in the heart of the city with trucks, busses, jackhammers making noise. She said that she could not sleep a wink since moving here because of the terrible noise in her yard. It was the Cicadas. Yep. It's all a matter of what you are accustomed to. I personally love the sound of them in my back yard. I feel like I live deep in the woods with no civilization around. You are so funny Elena!-but not alone.

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  2. Cheryl, every New Yorker I know has disputed my claim about not hearing cicadas, my husband included, but I swear I do not remember them! I wouldn't mind one or two but the symphony drives me buggy...

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  3. I haven't heard any cicadas in Brooklyn yet this year, but they're around up here and I've heard them for as long as I can remember.

    Here are some pics of them in Brooklyn from last year:

    http://beehivehairdresser.com/2010/07/18/cicada-bug-skin/

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  4. They looks the same. Cicadas may gross me out, but I prefer them over Palmetto bugs...they remind me of prehistoric flying roaches.

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