US prepares for plague of Brood X

[emad]

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles
Wednesday May 12, 2004
The Guardian

<snip>

The headlines say it all: "They're coming!" "Region prepares for invasion", "Vanguard of Brood X marks its spot". Or as the Los Angeles Times put it: "Noisy little buggers about to hit the East".
The "noisy little buggers" in question are cicadas, known as Brood X because of the long time they spend underground as juveniles. A few come out every year, but every 17 years something extraordinary happens in the eastern US as billions emerge across several states. The result is a noisy, sticky, scrunchy mess.

"Our house and the yard are now covered with them," wrote an excited visitor to cicadamania.com. "It was quite amusing watching my wife sprint to her car with an umbrella over her head!"

But while the mess left by the inch-long insects will present an inconvenience during the six weeks they are expected to be present, it is the noise that will create the true discomfort.

Each male cicada produces a mating call so loud it registers between 80 and 100 decibels, the equivalent of a noisy car engine or a lawnmower. With anything between 100,000 and 1m expected per acre, the noise should be phenomenal.
<snip>
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1214757,00.html

[DODI]

1. Sounds like the Screamapillar.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

2. A Map of Brood X

I think the reason this is getting media attention is that this is the brood that affects the DC area....but theres quite a concentration in the Ohio Valley, too....