As a kid I always poked and took an interest in bugs. One day I picked one of those things up. All was good. Until it started to buzz. Psychologically destroyed me. To this day I have an abnormal fear of insects. Put a Mantis or Cinche bug in the room and its over.
I hate them only when i am near one because the sudden movement startles me. My mom who is from a village in India has no problems with crazy jungle stuff. She picks them up like they are nothing. Scares the crap out of me when I was little. I do hate the exoskeletons on the house though.
weird how something like a cicada can bring back childhood memories. playing outside as a kid was the first thing i thought of when i opened the thread.
one of those cicadas flew in our house last sunday night when we were chillin watching a baseball game around 11. Started circling my roommates head we all jumped up (thing was hissing) we cleared out, then it flew into our fake tree, we bashed that tree to get him out and he let out a shreeek equivalent to.... <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YfrFGt_Sp_w"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YfrFGt_Sp_w" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> . Nonetheless, we trapped the b*stard and stomped the **** out of it.
exactly! they have always been around, and particularly heavy towards the end of summer...when I heard em, I knew to use my time wisely, cause school was right around the corner. It was the background music of my childhood.
Cicadas are bad ass! Name me any other creature that lives 2 feet underground for 17 years before it comes out one summer for the sole purpose of mating and dying. They actually have 17 different "broods" - family trees essentially - that come out one brood per year. The ones that are making all that noise this summer were of the 1990 brood, and they'll have babies and die this month, and their kids won't be back until 2024 - think of that! There's speculation that the 17 year period is a prime number so that predators can't synchronize generations with any specific brood - assuming that their predators generally live far shorter lives (per generation). These guys remind us of our childhood so much because they were born during our childhood - hell, the younger posters around here weren't even alive yet when these bugs made their debut. Oh, and not all Cicadas have this awesome trait, just the ones in North America called Magicicadas. One of the most amazing creatures on earth.
Actually, I hate most bugs. This one has always amazed me though, I was just reading up on them on wikipedia a couple days ago. I think my fascination must have something to do with the childhood-summer association.
