Thursday, November 18, 2021

Do You Remember the Cicadas?

Brood X Cicada
Elkridge, MD
May 28, 2021

I was reviewing my collection of images from this year and ran across one of a 17-year Brood X cicada.

They were noisy visitors to the region for over a month. In my yard it often sounded like a jet engine humming as they sang their mating songs. 

For over a month they assaulted our ears and were everywhere. It was difficult to be outdoors as their singing was so loud.

But then they were gone. Their bodies strewn over the landscape and the leaves where the females laid their eggs of the next generation were brown for much of the summer as a reminder--but now with the arrival of late-Autumn, they and any visible sign of the bugs have vanished. 

I guess I miss them. They were such an event and such a force in the region with their swarming and noisy mating. In 17 years, when they again emerge, people will be trying to remember 2021 and the last time the bugs made an appearance. 


-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

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