Cicada-palooza 2021 is a comin'. Or is it?

Sometime in the next few weeks, the cicada Brood X will start emerging.

As I recall, the last major brood event was kind of a bust here in NJ.

The worst brood I recall was in the mid-90's. (96-ish?) Not quite sure. The noise and the stench were overwhelming in my neighborhood. I never saw such a thing. 

I'm hoping for a bust.


Cicadas are the sound of summer heat.


Is there really a "stench"?  I do not recall any foul smells from the past.


rhw said:

Is there really a "stench"?  I do not recall any foul smells from the past.

 Oh yeah. From the discarded skins. We had oak trees where the lawn at their bases were covered with hundreds and hundreds of skins. Maybe more. I had to rake them up to get rid of them.  They reeked. It was pretty gross.


drummerboy said:

 Oh yeah. From the discarded skins. We had oak trees where the lawn at their bases were covered with hundreds and hundreds of skins. Maybe more. I had to rake them up to get rid of them.  They reeked. It was pretty gross.

 I missed that part entirely!


rcarter31 said:

drummerboy said:

 Oh yeah. From the discarded skins. We had oak trees where the lawn at their bases were covered with hundreds and hundreds of skins. Maybe more. I had to rake them up to get rid of them.  They reeked. It was pretty gross.

 I missed that part entirely!

yeah, the density of the brood is kind of localized I guess, but our street got slammed. It was like a sci fi movie.


A) Cicadas are edible (deep-fried when they've just molted their old carapaces), are said to taste like shrimp, and are high in protein, low in fat. And

2) Lorraine Feather is the only jazz singer I know who's written a song about them...

-s.


I remember an enormous invasion of cicadas, must have been late 70s, early 80s?  Riding at Watchung Stable on the trails, all you could hear was the bugs humming and the neverending crunch, crunch crunch as the horses walked on them.  Bleah


Possibly 1981. I was in HS and vividly remember a boy being dared to eat one, and I recall it mainly because he took the dare. 


We had a good number the last time around -- definitely much less than 17 years ago -- which I THINK means we won't get many this time. My sense is this brood generally isn't in our part of the state so much, but most of the reporting on this isn't at a very local level, so the whole state gets colored in on a map. 


I guess I was about a month early, but it could be any day now.


drummerboy said:

 Oh yeah. From the discarded skins. We had oak trees where the lawn at their bases were covered with hundreds and hundreds of skins. Maybe more. I had to rake them up to get rid of them.  They reeked. It was pretty gross.

 They smell like a rotten pork roll, bacon, and cheese sandwich to me. They’re fleshy insects — get a pile of them together, and it’s just like having a rotten pile of meat and fat in your yard.


wonderful

Redfruit said:

 They smell like a rotten pork roll, bacon, and cheese sandwich to me. They’re fleshy insects — get a pile of them together, and it’s just like having a rotten pile of meat and fat in your yard.

 


I know this isn't a politics thread, but I think this still goes here.


One amazing feat of Nature is that each summer the cicada killer wasps emerge from the ground shortly after the cicadas arrive.   These wasps are large and scary looking, but they have no interest in stinging people.  They are only interested in finding cicadas, capturing them, and then dragging them into their holes in the ground for food for the next wasp generation.  


RobertRoe said:

One amazing feat of Nature is that each summer the cicada killer wasps emerge from the ground shortly after the cicadas arrive.   These wasps are large and scary looking, but they have no interest in stinging people.  They are only interested in finding cicadas, capturing them, and then dragging them into their holes in the ground for food for the next wasp generation.  

 I think I saw that movie on the SyFy channel.


any sitings yet? I think the cool weather is slowing them down.


Yes - sounds like a slight delay:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/12/weather/cicadas-17-year-2021-scn-trnd/index.html

And when they do come:

https://www.wired.com/story/eating-cicadas-brood-x/

Adventurous chefs aren’t the only cheerleaders. Brian Fisher, an entomologist with the California Academy of Sciences, heads a project that encourages insect-eating in Madagascar, but he’s also bullish on edible critters coming to American kitchens. Like Yoon, he views the cicada as an appealing entry point for eaters wary of munching bugs. “It’s one of the beautiful, tasty ones!” he says. “It tastes like shrimp. It’s high-end.”


The last time they came out in Maplewood, it was worse the closer you got to the reservation.  People up the hill from Ridgewood Rd got hit worse than those in town or east of Valley St.


so, apparently, there is a cicada fungus going around which causes the cicadas' butts to fall off, including genitals.  Despite the lack of genitals, there libido goes up, making them a little nuts. This is due to the amphetamine produced by the fungus.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/18/997998920/the-fungus-thats-making-cicadas-sex-crazy


drummerboy said:

so, apparently, there is a cicada fungus going around which causes the cicadas' butts to fall off, including genitals.  Despite the lack of genitals, there libido goes up, making them a little nuts. This is due to the amphetamine produced by the fungus.

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/18/997998920/the-fungus-thats-making-cicadas-sex-crazy

 TL;DR version: "Magic mushrooms increase libido, reduce performance"


It will be interesting when the girlfriends of fundamentalist Republican lawmakers and preachers, see their first cicadas.


Formerlyjerseyjack said:

It will be interesting when the girlfriends of fundamentalist Republican lawmakers and preachers, see their first cicadas.

 Cicada fungus and butts falling off is clearly punishment for their single horny lusting and taking drugs, instead of a commitment to cicada celibacy.


I don't think they are due to arrive in NJ until at least next week. If you have an iphone, check out the app Cicada Safari which will allow you to track sitings. Otherwise, here's the website:

https://cicadasafari.org


Well, that would explain why I have seen nary a one.


for you craftspeople out there


Apparently they are all over Princeton!


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