A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 A treat to behold today . . .Cicada

I was working at the foot of this dead tree for 20 minutes before I noticed this marvelous bit of nature in action:



As I thought it might, the beast flew away within the half hour.

That is such a neat thing to watch!
When my daughter was about 9 years old she came running into the house screaming about a big bug coming out of it's shell. I went out to look, and that's what it was. I got the camera, just like you, and took pictures while it was coming out. As soon as it got out, it stayed there for about a minute, then flew straight down to the ground. Well, we backed up because we didn't want a big bug to get ON us, and that's when it happened! My pet chicken (Hazel) snatched it up and it was GONE in about 2 seconds. I 'bout died! After all that, it got eaten by a chicken.

That is a Cicada. Chuck, my husband, made me come outside to watch one shed its old shell, but it took too long, and I had to go to bed. In the morning, all was left was it's old skin.

Shirley

Here is a really cool pic of one coming out of it's skin...

Cicada

Ok I am told to tell you that there is one species that only comes out every 17 years. Just some more useless info for your brain

Yep, cicadas come out in "cycles". That's what lives in the ground of Catalpa trees and the catalpa worms are great fishing bait, they say. They live there for years before they come out & don't live too long after they emerge & shed those shells. We used to call them locusts...I just found out the other day that they weren't, LOL.

Funny story, when my son was about 13 or 14 months old, he had just started walking, I saw one of the shells laying on our porch. So, I decided to show my little boy this cool shell. I called him over next to me, bent over to pick it up & it took off screaming, along with me & my son. Within seconds we were both crying, LOL! It's funny now, but it wasn't then!

yeppers.. cicada....but not the 17 year one that all the fuss was over this year. Those were black with red eyes.

Thanks for the great response, gang. It's good to know that I'm not the only one who will gawk at wierd things on trees.

Yes, Cicada - I seem to remember somebody telling me about the one that only comes out every few years.

I'm going to keep my eyes open when I'm working on the lot today - see if anything else joins us.