Who hasn't thrilled to the sound of Cicadas with their buzzing chaater and songs. This afternoon as I went out the door I was delighted to see this beautiful Cicada on the door of my house. It's hard to believe that they spend most of the YEARS of their life underground. I'm sure you've seen them in that form, too. In this stage they are big, fat white and disgusting. With creepy legs......Yes, I am talking about GRUBWORMS! the larval stage of this insect. Here are some pictures I took of this one.

Cicada 01


Cicada 02


Cicada 03

Thorny, I love those shots and while I LOVE the music they make, those bugs scare the beegeebers outta me!

I think they are CUTE! When they are in their grubworm form they are creepy but I think they are BEAUTIFUL as adults.

We've had a bunch of those this year! I'll be glad when they go back under for another 17 years. I have found lots of their shedded exoskeletons out in the yard.

Gailo, we've had a very large number of exo-skeletons this year too! My 2-year-old likes to make them stick onto her clothes (or her sisters) and then run around screaming about the "attack of the locust!" I really enjoy the sounds of cicadas and since we've got a lot of trees around there is always several making noise!

Thornius, those are great pictures! I didn't know that grubs were cicadas. Now I almost (emphasis on almost) feel bad about all the grubs that I kill... I have a film-photo from last year of a cicada shedding it's shell--it looks really neat although it's not in focus.

OH my gosh! I bet those grubs I found in my potted petunia were cicadas. I thought they were Japanese beetles but they didn't look like the picture. They are grey and have a brown head. They are pretty juicy looking. I put milky spore in the pots. Does that kill any kind of grub or just J. beetles?

My 5-year-old grandson picked up about 60 Cicada shells out of our yard this summer. In 5 more years we will again have the unbelievable swarms of the so-called 13-year-locusts. These are a different type from the ones in my pictures. The 13-year are black with red eyes and are smaller. They have a different sound, too. They make a, "tik-tik-tik-tik zzzzzz-IIIIII-ooooo" type of noise. Whenever the 13 year come out, the fishing becomes incredible......and the bird watching, too.

Well I've seen some green ones and some black ones and for awhile it was pretty noisey here. Maybe we should go fishing.

Great photos Thorny!

I think they're cute too Thorny! They look like little camoflauged army bugs! lol

We found a dead one in the yard the other day. I think the cat must have played it too much.

They die naturally a few weeks after emerging. I don;t think your cat killed it.

what type of cicada was that in the pics? (which were great, by the way! )

I'm not sure. It didn't match the descriptions that I could find.

Ewwwwww!!!!!

I haven't seen too many of those in my backyard... :rolleyes:

Good closeups, tho....

I had never heard of them before moving to Nebraska and at first the drove me absolutely nuts. The sound was never ending. Once I figured out what they were and got used to it, I was able to ignore it for the most part. I do not think we have them here in Washington either.

i haven't even thought about them in years. they are really cool!

Oh, I just love to listen to the chattering of the Cicada.

Hi Thornius

Glad you started a thread on Cicadas. I find them fascinating as well. I live in the New Orleans area and we have plenty Cicadas this season. They are in a water oak right behind my house. In fact, I was lucky enough to find one (DOA) , but still I found one and was able to photograph!



It appears we may have the same species. I did a little research some time back to see what kind are in my area and concluded this little guy is a Dog Day Cicada/Tibicen pruminosa to be precise! Annuals - like the flowers! I found a website that had the sounds and identified it that way. Very interesting. Love these little creatures! I also learned from that website there are several other species in my area by identifying their sound.

I remember the cicadas at my grandparents house on the banks of the Amite River near Baton Rouge. Their house had an attached boat dock on it and was built on stilts.

I see we have some common denominators, i.e. your grandparents living close to Baton Rouge, which is about one hour from where I live and you living in Nashville, close to where my sister lives!

Those cicadas are really somethin'. I would love to see what the other species in my area look like! :rolleyes: The sounds are piercing though. I still like them!