Cicada kinda summer....

This summer was a pretty big cicada year for us...they really are fascinating little creatures.  There were so many of them hatching that you could not walk thru a parking lot without getting 'caught' by one or more.  The males are the talkers, and when a male gets stuck in your hair and starts hollering, you know it!  They are very loud and it sounds like a high pitched screaming.  They have sticky feet like June Bugs....gives me the heebie jeebies.

There were empty 'shells' all over the trees and around our yard they were also in the grass. 

Those eyes....I wonder if they really see out of the little black speck that we can see.  And if so, what are they thinking?

Here are a few cicada fun facts that I found on the Internet...I just picked out a few.
Cicadas emerge after the soil temperature exceeds 64º F, which is usually in late May.
Only the male cicadas sing. They have sound-producing structures called tymbals on either side of the abdomen.
There are three different species of 17-year periodical cicadas that will not emerge in 2011.
There are four species of 13-year cicadas, which will emerge in 2011. 
Adult cicadas do not eat solid food, but do drink fluids to avoid dehydration.
Adult cicadas do not sting or bite humans, and they do not carry diseases. But they can harm young trees when female cicadas lay their eggs in the tree’s new growth. It is not recommended that you spray to kill the cicadas, because they fly into a tree to lay their eggs and spraying will not kill these incoming cicadas. If you have a young tree, you can loosely wrap the branches with cheesecloth to keep the female from laying her eggs.

• Pesticides are not effective at controlling periodical cicadas.

• Periodical cicada years are quite beneficial to the ecology of the region. Their egg-laying in trees is a natural pruning that results in increased numbers of fruits in the succeeding years. Their emergence from the ground turns over large amounts of soil, and after they die their decaying bodies contribute a massive amount of nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil.

AND MY FAVORITE....FUNNY STORY....THERE WAS AN ICE-CREAM STORE IN TOWN THAT MADE CICADA ICE-CREAM AND THEY SOLD OUT!  NO JOKE!  THEN THEY GOT IN TROUBLE AND HAD TO QUIT...DARN LOCAL GOVERNMENT!

•Periodical cicadas are best eaten when they are still white, and they taste like cold canned asparagus. Like all insects, cicadas have a good balance of vitamins, are low in fat, and, especially the females, are high in protein.

Periodical cicadas are often incorrectly called locusts. Locusts are grasshoppers and cicadas are more closely related to aphids than grasshoppers.

There you have it....what part of our summer consisted of.  The big hatch is over, so now there are just the normal cicada sounds and less chance of getting snagged by one.  :-)
Until later....Karen and Tripp who thinks cicadas are too loud.