(03-25-2024, 08:12 PM)Maxmars Wrote: From ScienceLine: Don’t freak out, but the cicadas are coming — lots of them
Subtitled: Billions will likely emerge across the eastern half of the US this spring, but climate change is a wild card

[Image: https://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/sagar-vasnani-SR_m9dUV2go-unsplash-2-2048x1536.jpg]

Oh, I remember the last time!  By coincidence, I moved back to the area where my entire life had been 'encrusted' with cicadas.  Wherever you could cast your eyes, cicadas could be seen in abundance... literally like a wallpaper over the telephone poles, ann on every building surface.  I kind of found it 'funny' until the noise nearly drove me mad.  

 Although the author treats us to the obligatory doctrine of these last few years, by opening with recipe ideas... there is some interesting information within NOT trying to 'sell' us on the 'joy' of eating bugs.

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... for the first time since 1803, two broods of periodical cicadas will emerge at the same time in the Eastern U.S. 

The broods, which are groups of cicadas in a particular region that emerge together, won’t overlap — except possibly in a small sliver in northern Illinois. But residents across much of the East can still expect to see “millions per acre” starting in late April or early May, says John Cooley, who studies cicadas at the University of Connecticut. “You won’t be able to avoid these,” he says.

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Further on, the tell us that when the ground temperature reaches about 64 degrees (F) they will begin to tunnel upward from underground, where they have been maturing for a decade and a half or so.

The article has a particularly strong "save the Earth," "manmade climate change," and "bugs are great protein!" vibe.  But despite that affliction it is worth reading.

(03-31-2024, 10:30 AM)SnrRog Wrote: I don't know. I've been paying attention to the '17 year locusts' since 1970, I was 13. My brother ⅞was 17. We picked them up by their wings and smashed them to the ground, there were so many of them, it was hard to sit outside and have a conversation, the bugs were so loud!
I have lived in the same area all of my life, Lehigb Valley, Pa. Each 17 years, they became less and less, and in 2021, I MAY have heard a few, and I sit outside pretty much every night from spring to early winter.
In 2021 there was an article in The Morning Call (daily paper) about it, but it never happened. I don't know any reasons for it.

SnrRog

(03-31-2024, 10:30 AM)SnrRog Wrote: .....it was hard to sit outside and have a conversation, the bugs were so loud!