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I just read that this year 2013 is the year the Cicada's return after being away for 17 years. They are expected to be thousands per square mile, on the East Coast form NY to N. Carolina starting from late April through May. Does anyone know how they affected the AT 17 years ago? Look on the bright side they are just bite size pieces of protein!!
I just read that this year 2013 is the year the Cicada's return after being away for 17 years. They are expected to be thousands per square mile, on the East Coast form NY to N. Carolina starting from late April through May. Does anyone know how they affected the AT 17 years ago? Look on the bright side they are just bite size pieces of protein!!
Did you see this report?
http://www.whptv.com/news/local/story/One-billion-cicadas-emerging-per-square-mile/3wDDnEbiDUqhDPIP3OjJpg.cspx
I think they must have got the decimal point in the wrong place, but the billion per square mile number was widely reported. By my math, that would be 37 per square foot.
i remember some of the big broods when I was a kid, and collected the shells I found on trees. Great fun.
ahh another of my favorite nature myths. there are cicadas every year. all cicadas are on a life cycle of roughly 17 years, but it depends on type and the climate in which they reside. there are certain points in the cycle where you get a dramatic increase in the number in a given year, but the idea that all cicadas only appear in the same year every 17 years and you never see them any other time is just not true. the Wikipedia page on cicadas explains it quite well if youre interested
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magicicada as you cans ee theres a major brood out somewhere on the east coast almost yearly
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/04/02/176012068/sing-fly-mate-die-here-come-the-cicadas
I've lived in North Carolina my entire life and can't remember a year passing without seeing or at least hearing them.
I saw a hatch a couple years ago where they said we would have a million per square mile. For six weeks it was very loud. You'd see them here and there in the woods but it wasn't like swarms of locusts or anything. The noise was pretty impressive though.
Rocket Jones
04-08-2013, 05:57
Mother Nature's vuvuzela.
Hikes in Rain
04-08-2013, 06:05
They make it pretty hard to sleep, but do give you the fun of tracking the sounds they make from tree to tree while you're lying there.
also worth nothing that the largest 17 year cycle brood, also on the east coast, was last out in 2004. so even especially high cicada years happen much more often than every 17 years.
The Solemates
04-08-2013, 10:00
ahh another of my favorite nature myths. there are cicadas every year.
true dat. i always laugh at this nonsense. We have cicadas in our forested "yard" every year. Every year we go collect their "shells" in a big bucket. last year we collected over 1.5 gallons worth.....equivalent to hundreds of the things....and that was only a portion of our acreage! makes great compost!
bear bag hanger
04-08-2013, 10:15
I remember hearing and seeing a lot of them during my 2004 thru hike of the AT. Sometimes they can be deafening, but most of the time it was OK. Don't recall hearing them at night. The biggest problem, for me, was they some times land on you and I don't really like them doing that. Good news is they don't bite. I'm told you can eat them and they taste a little bit like lobster.
I'm told you can eat them and they taste a little bit like lobster.
I'm having visions of sitting around the campfire dipping the "I can't believe it's not lobster" cicadas into a melted pool of "I can't believe it's not butter" butter. Or maybe not.
JustADude
04-29-2013, 13:10
Looks like there will some in Central VA.
http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/article_d825f164-af7c-11e2-9fbd-001a4bcf6878.html
A big batch of them appeared last year in AL and it was pretty weird when they all started synchronized chirping (or whatever you call that noise).
Should make for some good trail stories, but I didn't see any near Harpers Ferry last weekend.
I remember when the big brood was around in Pennsylvania 17 years ago. When driving it was like somebody was throwing rocks at your windshield. It was a good year for the windshield wash manufacturers.
I'm told you can eat them and they taste a little bit like lobster.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn2UJ5Upm1E
perdidochas
04-29-2013, 17:31
true dat. i always laugh at this nonsense. We have cicadas in our forested "yard" every year. Every year we go collect their "shells" in a big bucket. last year we collected over 1.5 gallons worth.....equivalent to hundreds of the things....and that was only a portion of our acreage! makes great compost!
It's not quite nonsense. Yes, there are cicadas every year--many cicada species (and there are over 100 species of cicadas in North America) do brood every year. However, there are 7 cicada species with major broods on 13 and 17 yr cycles. In those years, the cicadas are everywhere, and are a major nuisance. http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/projects/cicada/sp_pages/species_NA.html
I can remember 15 yrs ago in Nashville, the 13-yr brood cycle occurred. It was pretty intense. I remember this, because my wife was pregnant with my now 14 yr old (will be 15 in August) son when we visited my brother there. He said that the 2011 cycle wasn't too bad.
perdidochas
04-29-2013, 17:32
true dat. i always laugh at this nonsense. We have cicadas in our forested "yard" every year. Every year we go collect their "shells" in a big bucket. last year we collected over 1.5 gallons worth.....equivalent to hundreds of the things....and that was only a portion of our acreage! makes great compost!
It's not quite nonsense. Yes, there are cicadas every year--many cicada species (and there are over 100 species of cicadas in North America) do brood every year. However, there are 7 cicada species with major broods on 13 and 17 yr cycles. In those years, the cicadas are everywhere, and are a major nuisance. http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/projects/cicada/sp_pages/species_NA.html
I can remember 15 yrs ago in Nashville, the 13-yr brood cycle occurred. It was pretty intense. I remember this, because my wife was pregnant with my now 14 yr old (will be 15 in August) son when we visited my brother there. He said that the 2011 cycle wasn't too bad.
And there are some very interesting evolutionary theories as to why the big swarming species are on cycles of prime numbers. It seems very likely that the 13 and 17 year species thrived because of the relatively lower likelihood of a predator or parasite having a frequently overlapping life cyle, and they emerge with sufficient numbers so that whatever predators or parasites are there cannot kill enough of the cicadas to make a significant dent on reproduction.
Cool stuff. :)
also worth nothing that the largest 17 year cycle brood, also on the east coast, was last out in 2004. so even especially high cicada years happen much more often than every 17 years.
I remember this one. I was in Virginia at the time and they were everywhere it seemed. I remember driving down I-81 and they would smash off the windshield of the truck and make one heck of a noise...
importman77
04-30-2013, 10:39
also worth nothing that the largest 17 year cycle brood, also on the east coast, was last out in 2004. so even especially high cicada years happen much more often than every 17 years.
I thought that 2004 had to be right cause in 2004 I took my family on a road trip up the east coast to Maine. Somewhere along the way, pretty sure it was Maryland, we ran into swarms of them. I mean the highway was literally almost covered with them. We stopped at a rest area and when we got out you could hardly talk over the noise. It was something to see (and hear).