Heard today on the radio that this year is year 17 for the 17 year cicadas. Apparently, back in 1990, these little buggers were all over the place: swarming outdoor weddings, piling up on sidewalks, generally wreaking havoc. Even Ravinia has altered some performances this summer in anticipation.
People on the radio were relating stories about shoveling these cicadas from their driveways and crazy stuff like that. Ugh! And you thought my rat pictures were bad!
Three interesting tidbits about these cicadas: they are edible, there may be a justifiable reason for the 17 year cycle and only the males make the buzzing noise you hear. The reason for the 17 year life cycle hypothesized by some scientists pretty much follows Darwinian Theory. They had the best chance to survive if their life cycle didn't correlate to their predator's life cycles. For instance, there are 13 year and 17 year cicadas. Both are prime numbers. Cicadas with a 15 year life cycle would be exposed to predators who have three year and five year life cycles. Pretty intriguing when you think about it. Why no 11 year and/or 7 year cicadas though?
Thursday is a busy work day, so I may not have an entry at the end of the day. I'll try though!!
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5 comments:
oh wow, I remember those! You'd kick a tree and they'd come tumbling out. The funny thing was I thought they were 7 year cicadas, so I kept expecting them to come years ago and they didn't keep their date.
MMMMM...Cicadas...good with Ketchup...crunchy like fries...mmmmmm...
It should be an interesting summer or at least month of June, which is when they should be bad I guess. Not sure how it's going to impact golfing!!
One can avoid a lot cicadas by being inside and WORKING!
Hey Bee - looking forward to the June Cicada Foodie Post
El Supremo- you have heard of choclate covered and roasted cicadas, no? They are fairly tasteless and flavor is added by whatever you cook them in or cover them with...garlic and ketchup, yum!
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