Washington area braces for cicadas’ return

[marmar]

from the WaPo:


By Darryl Fears, Published: April 9


They’re back.

Seventeen years after a major swarm of bug-eyed cicadas staged one of nature’s weirdest — and loudest — mating rituals, their offspring are preparing to rise in Washington’s suburbs and the Mid-Atlantic.

Once the ground temperature hits 64 degrees, it’s on. A swarm of cicadas known as Brood II will climb from buried lairs from North Carolina to Connecticut with a very short to-do list: find a mate, make babies and die.

It will be the largest cicada population to arrive in the region since Brood X surfaced in the Washington area, the Northeast and the South in 2004. Brood X is thought by some entomologists to be the biggest of the cicada swarms that follow a 17-year life cycle.

But the coming Brood II gang, which has been underground since 1996, is no slouch. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/washington-area-braces-for-cicadas-return/2013/04/09/29688616-9f1c-11e2-9a79-eb5280c81c63_story.html

[MadHound]

1. Having gone through a massive cicada invasion, a word of advice to animal lovers,

Don't let your cats, and especially dogs, eat too many of the critters. A cicada's hard crunchy shell can do some serious damage to a dog's GI tract, and if a dog continues to eat and eat the critters, that damage adds up quick.

Oh, that and buy some ear plugs, the noise can literally drive you crazy.

[elleng]

2. Thanks, MadHound.

I'm waiting to see and hear them, lived through them in the past, and will remind my daughter, who has 3 dogs, about what you've said.

[mike_c]

3. that DC area brood is one of the best in the country....

I've seen it emerge twice. Absolutely amazing. As MadHound mentioned up thread, the noise is otherworldly.