This is a bit of a random post and if you don’t live in a area where there are cicada you’ll probably wonder what on earth I’m on about!!
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A green cicada shedding its shell. Image credit |
I am sitting at my desk trying to get some work done while Miss L is asleep, and I can hardly hear myself think!!!! The noise of the cicadas outside is literally deafening and really distracting when you’re trying to concentrate. I think it’s a bit creepy that you can hear them everywhere you go but you never see them (except for their outer shells that are laying around everywhere). Which is a actually blessing, because I think if I ever did see them flying around I can’t promise I wouldn’t freak out!!
Master J told me the other day that those little drips of water (like very light rain) you feel when standing under a tree is cicada wee. “Oh really!!” I said, humouring him. “IT IS MUM!!!” he insisted. I decided to google it and guess what – he was right!!!! EWWWW I am so not standing under any big trees any more.
While discovering that cicada’s do in fact ‘wee’ on us, I also learnt a few other random facts about these strange bugs which I thought I would share……
- Once their eggs are laid they live under the ground for 7 years before they dig themselves to the surface to breed.
- They only come to the surface when the ground temperature is above 18 degrees C, so with our unseasonably warm weather this season they are out early.
- They are actually large tree crickets (not locusts)
- They drink the sap from trees and then ‘wee’ it out!!! True fact!!
- This year in Sydney there is a huge population of up to 1.5 million per acre. WOWZERS!!
- They are the loudest insects know to man and a large swarm of them can reach up to 120 decibels – which is louder than a rock concert or a chain saw!! No wonder I can’t hear myself think!!
- Only the males sing because they are trying to ‘woo’ the females for a bit of loving! Once they’ve mated they only last another month before dying.
- There are several different species and they all have their own unique song and colours. Some of have nicknames like the Green Grocer, Chocolate Soldier, Blue Moon and Yellow Monday.
- They shed their shells (usually at night) and often kids, like my Master J, like to collect the shells and bring them in to show you. How lovely (not)!!!
- They are known to be ‘the sound of summer’. They louder they are and the earlier they start, the hotter the summer will be.
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I actually love cicadas, they really are the sound of summer for me, and I used to LOVE finding their shells as a kid – quite special also that they live for 7 years underground!
They’re very intriguing Em but coming from England where the scariest bug we have is the lady bug I’m a bit of a wuss I’m afraid!!!
Once, as kids, we drank cicada wee for a whole afternoon! We were working on a fence line and had run low on water. The skies were overcast, so when liquid fell from above we figured it was drizzling. It was drizzling, but not water. Ugh!