Cicadas on the trail?

imported
#1

Are cicadas heard often on the AT? When and where? There’s supposed to be a bumper crop of them this year.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/03/0329_040329_cicadas.html#main

Bughead

#2

I remember tons of them being out in May-June, throughout the south.

God, I thought last year was a huge year. I’m afraid to see what a real swarm will look like.

bearbait

#3

Are they the same thing as locusts? Or maybe they live in locust trees. I’m talking about those bugs that start out their adult life by breaking out of & leaving behind a brown shell; then as adults, they are pretty big; with wings, etc. If they are what I think; I like them; but they are very loud, (make that extremely loud). They make their noise all together, & it’s kind of neat. All in all, don’t let them bug you!! (It’s the 'skeeters that I hate!) :girl :girl

RBG

#4

This year will be the breeding year for the 17 year locust or cicada.These will appear along with the regular yearly cicadas.The 17 year locust spends 17 years incubating in the ground before it emerges and climbs a tree to shed its skin to metamorphis into the large winged insect leaving that brown shell behind as RBG said.I was only lucky enougfh to experience the 17 years once(in pennsylvania in June/july?)34yrs ago and still remeber the ruby tint to there eyes,there are a lttle smaller than the big green ones.I wish i could be there to see them,the song of the cicada during summer is one of the things i miss the most about the mainland.

newb

#5

Hey Newb, thanks for the info. I’d forgotten most of what you said; tho I learned it growing up. As a kid, we used to collect the shells. To me, the noise they make is just part of a summer symphony played for free on lazy summer afternoons. I think I’m getting itchy for summer! :girl

RBG

#6

There are, of course, several different broods of 13 and 17 year cicadas. I don’t remember this brood from 17 years ago. Hmm… Living underground for so long, cicadas do not survive where the soil is tilled. In 1996,we had a brood that were deafening. I could hear them from two miles away as I approached a state forest in NJ. They sounded like police sirens. Only other brood I remember was from high school. That would have been about 1962. That would be the same brood, wouldn’t it? They’ll be back in 2013! So, hopefully, Jersey should be quiet this year. :slight_smile:

Harry Dolphin

#7

I started hearing them in 02 before Catawba, it hadn’t occurred to me what the noise was until I asked someone. It was frickin’ loud in the woods, no doubt, but just part of the other woodsy sounds. Then one day they were gone, I can’t remember where that was. I do know further north in PA there was another sound in the evenings that was loud, but different.

Bluebearee

#8

frogs are loud also

clong

#9

Some friends and I used to lease a lot on a lake(undeveloped)and spent every weekend in the summer camping there.One night I heard the little devils as usual,but it developed into a unbelievable crescendo of noise,I began to believe in UFO’S!!By coincidence it was the summer my oldest daughter was born.She will be 17 this summer.This was on the fringes of the pine barrens in N.J.Maybe this will be the year.Thanks for the thread,I never really thought about it before.Hike on.

Onlyone

#10

Hey bug fans, I found a map of where Brood X will be active this year. Good part of the AT down south:

http://www.msj.edu/cicada/

Bughead

#11

This thread reminded me of an experience I had years ago when camping. We were under the trees in a heavily wooded area off of the Blue Ridge Parkway, sleeping without a tent. As the campfire died down, bugs of some sort started dropping down out of the trees. We were a bit freaked out, to put it mildly. I didn’t get a good look at them, as I had my sleeping bag firmly pulled up over my head to seal them out. Do you think they were cicadas? They sounded like they were pretty good-sized as they plopped on our bags.

Jonna

#12

I read this today:

“According to Kritsky, the best time to eat a cicada is just after they break open their youthful skin. “When you eat them when they’re soft and mushy, when they come out of their skin, they taste like cold, canned asparagus,” he said.”

Anyone have any better recipes?

Tha Wookie

#13

I have been fasting for 17 years for a fresh, warm, newly emerged cicada.
Everyone out this summer can $ave lots of packweight.

:cheers

Fat Kid

#14

Hey folks; I’ve followed (with a bit of laughter) all the dialogue here;& was ready to move on…But last pm, I picked up the April 4 NY Times. On page 4 of 1 section;(Ideas & Trends) guess what fully half the page is devoted to?.. Yep…Cicadas. Titled “After 17 yrs, They’re Back, & In the Mood For Love”. It’s a fun, interesting article; & says that they’re emerging in late May or early June. The article further states that the adults who emerge dont harm anyone, don’t eat much, bite or anything. “What Cicadas want plain & simple, is sex.(they’ve been underground for 16 yrs, remember?!)” The article says the main complaint about them is the noise …“luckily the hootanany ends @ sunset”. Relevant to hikers one guy quoted says…“you have to go deep into the woods to appreciate their nuances… it’s like listening to “Sgt. Peppers (Lonely Hearts Club Band)” on Headphones.” Pretty fun article. Read it for a chuckle.:girl

RBG

#15

I read the article…pretty funny. It says that the males are the ones making all the noise; they all gather together in one tree & make their “wishes be known” to any females. Males whining about sex…hmmm.

totem

#16

…sautee them in garlic butter if you can scrounge some…
of course in the hiker spirit you can also melt a snickers and dip them or when your snickers is already melted from riding in your pack you save the fuel…stash a couple of the little buggers in your ramans (protien enriched cardboard) sun-dry a handful on a rock and put them in a zippie for later noshing works also and last but not least, nothing wrong with a peanut-butter and cicada bagal to kick-start your day…

fausa:cheers

fausa