Discussion: The Cicada Symphony

Yesterday, while hanging controls out in the forest at Willow Springs Woods near Chicago, I was amazed by the sudden appearance of huge clouds of fat and noisy cicadas, seemingly everywhere. Just last weekend there was absolutely no sign of any insects; they've all appeared in just the past few days.

Apparently this is Brood XIII of the 17-year cicada. But I have never seen anything like it. The noise these things make, they say, can exceed 90 db...its a humanistic sound: kind of like a huge unseen chorus singing "Ommmmm..." Spooky. Sari said it reminded her of The Birds.

Local news reports say this year the hatch rate of Brood XIII is particularly abundant, for a variety of reasons most of which seem to relate to Global Warming. But as orienteers, we are in a position to become especially aware of this phenom.

How widespread is this infestation? Has anyone else noticed a large increase in the number of bugs in the woods this spring?

According to a story on the radio a few minutes ago, this brood is primarily in the upper midwest (IL, IN, OH, IA, WI, I think they said).

The big cicada brood in my area is Brood X, and they were here 3 years ago. I saw/heard a decent amount here in PA but no overwhelming swarms. They were apparently very bad a little further south.

I still had them on my tent, horse, self, and tire... after shedding the shell

It was pretty cool, however I did not see any Sat. North of Willow Springs at Busse Woods. On the way home you could here them off the Toll way, big time until about O-Hare. I wonder if they come out as you move up north or something that has to do with temp.

Definitely related to temperature. We got out there this morning at 6:30 to hang a few last minute controls, and it was very quiet. But if you looked down at the plants around you, thousands of huge bugs were silently standing, watching...an army awaiting orders.

Then as the sun climbed in the sky, the background "Ommmmm..." began to swell, til by noon they were in full voice, swarming all over our runners as they criscrossed the meadows, flying into them and dropping from trees.

A couple weeks ago the local news was saying a large hatch would be making an appearance in the STL area, but so far nothing....