Cicadas
As you all know, we live in central Illinois. It has been on national news that here in Illinois, we are having a rare event. Two different species of cicadas hatching at the same time – a 13 year and a 17 year. We have been lucky at our house in that we hear them but we have seen only a few. I work in a native plant garden about 25 miles north of here and the cicadas are everywhere.
We gardeners all learned very quickly that the incessant loud droning is not their only sound. One was flying right at me and started a high-pitched scream. I could not believe what I was hearing! Talk about unnerving! On our work day, several gardeners had them fly down their tee shirts which was just an awful experience as they are hard shelled and about 2 inches long. And one of the gardeners told me these cicadas are killing her hostas that are under one of her big trees. They are not chewing on the leaves or eating the roots, but sitting on the many branches and twigs above these hostas and excreting. It is their excrement doing all the damage. Another gardener told us how she is sweeping hundreds of them off her deck twice a day. So Cleon and I consider ourselves lucky.
You will not see any of these huge bugs fly across the camera at the bird feeders but you will hear them. And at peak ‘singing’, they can drown out the birdsongs. If you find their incessant droning irritating – I do and it is so very loud – I would suggest that you turn your speaker’s volume down or off. It has been projected these locusts will all be finished breeding and back underground around July 4th. I am counting the days!