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Thread: Cicadas - the 17 year Locusts

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    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
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    Red face Cicadas - the 17 year Locusts

    Granny says, "Dat's right - dey's ugly an' noisy...

    Mystery Cicada Swarms Emerge Across Maryland In 2017
    May 16, 2017 - Cicadas are supposed to stick to a 13- or 17-year cycle, but swarms have emerged this spring. Why are they showing up across Maryland?
    A deafening and somewhat nasty phenomenon that longtime Marylanders will recognize has popped up this spring. Cicadas, sometimes known as "17-year locusts," have emerged in big numbers in Columbia, Bowie, Annapolis, Rockville and College Park, as well as across Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia in the past week, says one expert. The bugs, which, in large numbers can do serious damage to young trees, shrubs and various crops, are always around. But huge broods of them occasionally hatch all at once, usually in 13-year and 17-year cycles. For reasons that scientists are still trying to determine, a brood of cicadas will hatch in off years, which is the case for Maryland and Virginia. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

    According to The Gardener's Network, a 17-year brood known as Brood VI hatched last month in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. But Michael Raupp, a University of Maryland entomologist known as The Bug Guy, writes on his latest blog that what experts call "periodical" cicadas may be part of Brood VI, which hatched in 2004 in Maryland, or they could also be an early wave of Brood X, which is due to hatch in 2021. Theories on the mysterious appearance of the bugs clinging to trees and leaving exoskeleton shells everywhere includes a link to climate change, Raupp said. The numbers of cicadas out in Maryland is expected to increase as temperatures rise close to 90 degrees this week. “We don’t know exactly why this happens. All we know is that it does happen,” Raupp told WTOP.


    With temperatures climbing this week, "the entire DMV region should be rocking with these teenagers by next weekend," Raupp says. "So, grab a flashlight and look for a cicada jail break at night, and by day watch the antics of these amazing creatures as the big boy band cranks up in the treetops." The early visit by Brood X is known as acceleration, he says, when a portion of a cicada brood emerges years in advance of the "billions of cicadas comprising the bulk of their ginormous synchronous brood," Raupp writes.

    In 2016, periodical cicadas in some areas hit densities of 1.5 million insects per acre, according to the Washington Post. Fortunately, the adult life span of a cicada is short. The young nymphs often land on trees to shed their skin and become adults. After that, they spend only about four to six weeks above ground before dying. Contrary to popular belief, adult cicadas do not eat the vegetation that comes into their path. Rather, adult females cut slits into twigs and small branches to lay their eggs. The eggs hatch, creating tiny nymphs, which fall to the ground and burrow, feeding on underground tree roots for years until it's their time to emerge.

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    They are damn nasty and can strip a forest of all foliage and kill it for years.
    LETS GO BRANDON
    F Joe Biden

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    waltky (05-24-2017)

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    I haven't seen any yet this year, but i remember the last 2 times they were around. They are more of a nuscence than anything to people, flying at you all the time. They are loud and they fly in swarms. They do tear up some trees too though.

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    They are an element of every summer here, never seen a swarm.
    There is no God but Resister and Refugee is his messenger’.

    Book of Democrat Things, Chapter 1:1






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    Quote Originally Posted by resister View Post
    They are an element of every summer here, never seen a swarm.
    I have seen a swarm and its ridiculous
    LETS GO BRANDON
    F Joe Biden

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