It's a Jungle Out There

Or at least it sounds like it. Here, listen for yourself -

Cicadas 2011 from Michaella Johnson on Vimeo.

Ok, here's your science lesson for today (and way more bug pictures than should be in any post but in some way it's grossly fascinating).

Ever heard of cicadas? You know, the little locust type bugs that leave their little brown shells around on trees and leaves?

Come to find out, there's another kind called periodical cicadas. These cicadas live underground for either 17 or 13 years (the ones we have right now are the 13 year ones), then they come out, mate, lay eggs, and die. In another 13 years, their offspring will follow the same pattern.

After a little research, here are some things I've discovered:

The source of the noise:
Cicada nymphs emerge from the ground, crawl up trees, shed their skins, and fly to the treetops from which the males call for mates. Females reply with wing clicks to lure in the males. They only sing during the day - at night everything's nice and peacefully quiet again.

Everywhere you look - up high, down low, or in the middle - you can spot tons of the shells

Weird fact:
Apparently, they taste good: cats, dogs, and even some people like to eat them.  I stumbled across recipes for cicada stir-fry, deep-fried cicada, and cicada rhubarb pie along with instructions on how to properly gather, blanch, and store them. Gross! (Please, if you've eaten a cicada - or any bug for that matter - don't ever tell me or I might not be able to get over it enough to ever hang out with you!)
 
Reasons not to be scared:
Cicadas are not pests -they don't eat up or damage plants or anything else (they eat tree sap, even when they are underground).
Cicadas are no threat to humans. They don't bite, sting, lay eggs on you or in you, or even land on you (unless, I'm guessing, in the case that you are camouflaged as a tree . . . then they might).

Reasons I'm still scared:
They are bugs.
They are big bugs.
They are big, freaky looking bugs. They have bright red eyes and orange on their huge wings. (Did I mention that they are big?)
They leave behind scary looking shells all over the place, and I don't want to accidentally touch or crunch one.

Basically, the only reason I'm still in Macon for the next 4-6 weeks is because (other than the noise and the shells which don't move so I can tolerate them) they really do keep to themselves. Trust me, if they were flying around all over the place, there is absolutely no way that I would venture out of the house! Every now and then, I'll spot a dead one, but that's it.

Little known fact:
Ok, here's the real reason why it bothers me so much. I can tune out just about anything: laughing, talking, singing, playing, crying, giggling, screaming - none of it bothers me. Little noises that shouldn't bother any normal person drive me crazy: buzzing from a speaker, humming of a light, the background noise of singing cicadas that I can still faintly hear inside my house. On second thought, maybe I should rethink the whole extended trip . . .

Guess who's pretty excited about it all though - this weird child of mine who doesn't mind any creature, no matter how disgusting or annoying they are (except for ants which totally freak her out - go figure!?)