Its not a consarned "Cicada," okay?

[TheWizardOfMudd]

It's a goshdarned LOCUST. Okay? Believe me, I know.

I used to drop matchsticks down into the barrel of my unloaded Daisy BB Air Gun and impale them from behind at 25 feet!

Dadgummit!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. Ah, the old matchstick projectile up the ass trick, huh?

Never had a Daisy, I had a Crossman... did the same thing though. Used to make custom spears for various uses... small birds, squirrels, locusts, chipmunks... you know targets of opportunity in the average backyard combat environment.

I think Locusts hired a PR firm about 30 years ago... Cicada is the result.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

2. You're my Idol!

I never thought to develop the customized spear for larger prey. I am graciously humbled! :)

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. we even experimented with sharpened paper clips as more

potent weapon delivery systems, however, accuracy was a big problem due to wobble... we could never get them straight enough/centered enough/balanced enough whatever.

please, don't feel humbled.. I inhereted this psychotic hobby from a long line of totally insane children who had grown up on our block.

[Devils Advocate NZ]

4. Two different species...

The periodical cicadas, family Cicadidae, whose life cycles are 13 or 17 years long, are locally known as 13-year or 17-year locusts. They are not true locusts, however, and are related to the aphids and treehoppers, order Homoptera.
http://www.4to40.com/earth/geography/htm/insectsindex.asp?counter=25

[BiggJawn]

5. Au contraire, Mon Frere....

A Cicada is a Cicada. A Locust is what we call in the midwest a "Grasshopper".

One of these:



Why would Pharoh give a shit about a plague of Cicadas? They don't eat anything whaen they hit Adulthood, unlike the Grasshopper, which can take a field down to stubble...

[TheWizardOfMudd]

6. Nope

That's a friggin grasshopper.

I'm searching for a pic of a locust.

[TheWizardOfMudd]

7. Here's what I'm talking about

They make the most peaceful sound during hot afternoons.

[Sporadicus]

8. The Difference Between Cicadas, Grasshopper, and Locusts

this is a cicada


this is a grasshopper


this is a locust

Cicadas often go by the misnomer 'seventeen-year locusts,' but they are entirely different.

Grasshoppers and locusts are closely related. Grasshoppers are solitary, but locusts swarm in hordes. The coloring is a bit different as well.

[Paragon]

9. I prefer the Biblical definition of "locusts"

In which case, cicadas definitely qualify. I'm so tired of these pests.

[Sporadicus]

10. The Biblical Locusts Weren't Cicadas

they don't even have mandibles for chewing; they don't eat at all as adults. Locusts, however, have voracious appetites and can chew a field down to stubble in no time at all. Pharaoh encountered locusts just like the one in the picture.

[Paragon]

11. I meant "locusts" in the sense of swarming pestulance

I live in Cincinnati - they're all over the goddamned place.

[Sporadicus]

12. Yeah, I Got 'Em Too

but they're merely a nuisance. I lived in a house at the edge of a woods the last time they arrived, and they were swarming everywhere. My sister-in-law, who is deathly afraid of any insect, was visiting. We were outside when one dive-bombed her midriff, getting tangled in the fabric of her shirt. She screamed like a wounded wildcat and did a frantic dance until my wife picked the cicada off her shirt. I just about busted my gut hee-hawing, and I couldn't see her for months afterwards without breaking out laughing all over again.