Cicadas

The cicadas are 1.5"-2" long and have distinctive red eyes.

 I don't know about the rest of the country, but we've been talking about cicadas here in the east for several months now. May saw the emergence of Brood X cicadas that have been biding their time underground for the last 17 years. There are over 3000 species of cicadas around the world, but only 7 of these are periodic cicadas, most emerging after 13 or 17 years underground. They appear for a couple of months in great numbers, mate, lay eggs, and the larvae burrow back underground for a very slow development to the next stage. They have no defense mechanism, so the large numbers assure their continuance. 

Holes where they emerged from the ground. I was at a picnic recently where a 3 year old was entertained by stuffing cicadas and their shells back into the holes. Her younger brother, spent a fair amount of time just walking around and poking his finger in the holes.

And what is it like when they are out and about? First, the sounds that the males make for mating purposes are deafening. The noise can be as loud as 100 decibels, which is equivalent to a low flying plane or a lawn mower starting. The din makes conversations outside difficult and causes ringing in the ears. However, luckily, they usually quiet down at night or on a cool day. They can be everywhere--on the ground, on the fence, up your pants leg, on a tree, down your shirt. The good news is that they don't bite or sting and only do minor damage to trees when the females lay their eggs under the bark of small branches or twigs. However, they have been known to kill a small tree.

The larva emerge from the ground and molt to expose wings.

And while they are all over the area in Mid Atlantic and up the East Coast, they are not ubiquitous. We have not seen any at our house unless you count the wings we find in our yard--presumably carried there by birds. However, a few miles away at Aunt Martha's house, they are out in full force and they have totally surrounded Wally's apartment.

While I don't have cicadas at my house this year, I have shells everywhere from an earlier invasion. It happened before we moved in and I'm not sure when that was. Notice the strong front digging claws.

The cicada invasion is dying down and they should be pretty much gone in a few weeks. Wally commented a couple of days ago, that the noise had died down enough that he could hear birds again. Soon restaurants will stop featuring them on their menus, I guess. By the way, I'm told that you shouldn't eat them if you're allergic to shell fish and they taste like shrimp. I wouldn't know and I don't plan to find out. :)