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This year we are expecting the return of a brood of periodical cicadas that have been living underground for 17 years. We have not seen any yet, but some began emerging over the weekend in the area. Stay tuned for some fun cicada facts and activities, and our eyewitness accounts as the cicadas take over Maryland!
--story by Becky 5/11/04
Update 5/12/04: In a neighborhood in Wheaton today, I saw probably 20 cicada shells and saw two cicadas flying by. We still don't have any near our house, so Thea and Faith haven't seen any yet!
Update 5/15/04: The girls saw swarms of cicadas at church. Here is their
account.
Thea: We saw one upside down. The cicadas were at church. We saw lots of
them. We saw some in the tree. They were everywhere. The boy cicadas wanted
the girl cicadas. They were greenish. The shells were light brown.
Faith: The cicadas were at church. One cicada was flying over us. It was
kind of scary. It looked like a bee. It was kind of gross. All the boy ones
were singing to the girl ones and they were saying "Come here girl cicadas!"
The End.
Update 5/16/04 -- with pictures!
We saw the cicadas at Tim's house. There's a lot of cicadas and cicada shells in this pile. They took the cicada shells off the tree and put them on the ground.
I'm holding a cicada shell. It felt like nothing. I couldn't feel it.
Whooa! This is a cicada. The cicada has red eyes.
The cicada is coming out of its shell.
Mommy has a cicada shell on her shoulder. The shells stick to you.
I'm holding a cicada! It tickled me. I wasn't afraid of it.
Does the cicada look big in this picture? I thought it was big! Do you think it is big? Here are some things I learned about cicadas. They were underground for 17 years! In six weeks the cicada eggs will hatch, and then the baby cicadas will go underground and eat plant roots and stay under for 17 more years! If you stand next to a cicada, it will be as loud as a lawn mower! The cicadas sing to get girlfriends! Cicadas eat plants. And here's the most weird thing. You can EAT cicadas! I'm not going to eat any! Do you eat cicadas?
--story by Thea 5/16/04
Update 5/28/04:
The cicadas are covering Maryland. I think they're nice. Have any of you seen a blue-eyed cicada? Come over to my house and tell me if you saw one. Or tell me on the phone. Today I saw hundreds of cicadas. I got to hold two. One landed on my foot.
--story by Thea 5/28/04
Update 6/04/04:
Thea built a little nest on the patio and found "a cicada friend" to put in it.
Here's the friendly cicada. It stuck around for a day and a half until a severe rainstorm drove it away.