Ready for the Plague???

[Frosty]

We don't have cicadas... though we do get nasty years with grasshoppers. They turn the whole front end of your vehicle green when you drive. Our place doesn't have as many because turkeys love to eat them.

But I grew up in PA and remember mom getting grossed out when she went to clean a pheasant and the crop was full of cicadas... and I remember when my brother and I collected a whole bunch of the skins after they crawled out of them (those that have cicadas probably know the skins... they look like a bug complete with legs sticking out). We took them up to mom's bedroom and stuck them everywhere. On the lampshade, curtains, all over the bed... Shoulda heard her scream when she turned on the light that night.

 

[hikerchick]

We do get them here in PA- we had a whole mess of them a few years ago. I didn't know it was called a plague, though. I just know that there were holes all over my yard from where they crawled out and they made a deafening noise. When they were gone, there were bodies everywhere. I didn't have chickens back then- I wish I had.

 

[domino7]

Quote:
When we have them here, there is no counting them. You can scoop them up with a shovel. The sound of millions of them is like something out of a horror movie, and the stench of them rotting is like being at the dump. There is NOTHING pleasant about it lol.

 

[EweSheep]

I didn't think chickens would eat cicadas.

 

[CCourson05]

My cats eat them...

I hate these dang things though... I can't believe it is already time... I haven't started hearing them yet though...

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

My brother was driving to work yesterday. He pulled off the interstate an shut his car off before he could tell that sound was not something wrong with his car.

 

[sourland]

It's a truly eerie sound. Doesn't look as if they are due to hit NJ until 2021.

 

[Imp]

I want some.

I was in the Chicago area 5 years ago and there was some kind of bug making noise. The locals said it was cicadas.
I wanted to know if I caught a bunch, and smuggled them home in my suitcase, how long they would survive and make noise.
Unfortunately they said just a couple days.

Imp- darn I was disappointed.

 

[geepy]

Yep, our chickens love them. But down here (FL) we have love bugs. The chickens don't eat them. They stink and eat the paint off the car when they go SPLAT! I think I would rather have cicadas. We always called them locust.

 

[sourland]

Quote:
Imp, you would love them. The "strain" that inhabits NJ is red eyed, red veining on their wings and sort of an off color yellow/brown body. The undulating wailing sound drives me a little nutty.