To be honest, I haven’t been bothered by the cicadas this year — maybe they’ve been cacophonous south and east of here, but I’ve only seen a few and haven’t heard any of that shrill trilling. Maybe they’ll be out in force later, but for now, I’m still happy to see the cicada killers taking care of business.
Down here in Central Illinois we’ve only been hearing the yearly brood for about the past week. Where I’m at, we didn’t get the supposed apocalyptic brood overlap, but I guess we were just a little bit too far west.
Bald-faced hornet?
Sphecius speciosus, the Eastern Cicada-killer Wasp.
One of the most handsome wasps around, when you see them up close.
Also, when they fly this heavy load to their ground nursery, they land with an audible ‘thud’.
They are sort of the C-130 cargo aircraft of the wasp world.
Plus, they may check you out, but they never sting.
Love these guys.
Fa-fa-fa , fa-fa-fa-fa-fa Fa.
The cicadas have been incessant over here on the east side of MN, but it’s a different species with a constant high frequency call, rather than the typical rising and falling cicada buzz. I have seen a few cicada killers too, but have not found any cicada husks yet.
At night the tree crickets take over so it is never quiet.
It’s a great season for the insects. They like it hot and humid.
I’ve actually been wondering if I have tinnitus, but nope, it’s just bugs.
Haven’t heard from cicadas since 2021. I’m expecting the dog day brood to be chirping any day now.
I hardly ever hear cicadas anymore. I havent seen a cicada killer wasp in at least 5 years. I miss them
I guess I should clarify I haven’t heard from the 17-year ones since ’21. The annual ones I hear every year in late summer.
They’re as active here in Montreal as they were when I lived in Pittsburgh, 20 years ago.
The synchronized (13 or 17) ones are something to experience once every 13 or 17 years. I become nostalgic for what I was doing 17 or 34 years ago. I read that some mad college professors travel the country to study them every year!
I thought Sphecius speciosus was an alternative name for Cdesign propensist.
My very first encounter with a Cicada-killer Wasp was when I was digging a stump out of the ground. Thought I had released a hell-spawn demon. Scared the crap out of me it was so huge. Now I think we need more of them.
Have to admit I don’t get the cicada hate. Although maybe it’s different here on the other side of the world.
But here our cicadas are these gorgeous bejewelled things:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTzniulGPNZJ9oetf5ydIMdsbN_6EM6hY-mc9SAwOn3HrDaDvkDgoljsjy4&s=10
And they do this cool thing every kid knows where they shed their shell and you have this cool lifelike shell you get to play with as though it’s an action figure.
And their sound is the sound of summer. Just like in American movies and cartoons when they want to depict night there will ALWAYS be crickets – when I was growing up and it was a beautiful sunny summer’s day, there HAD to be the buzzing of cicadas. It was huge part of the atmosphere of summer. X-D
What an Australian cicada shell looks like:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRC_UHHaZVGMLj4JKNGPKC5D6ArRJRVG-HUrrVGuu2_7PxCaS1UGoW0rTU&s=10
That’s not a critter, it’s a lifelike empty replica of a critter and when I was a lad you’d find these things left behind on the side of trees and you’d play with them like toys.X-D
400 and some miles south east of you I haven’t heard any cicadas, lots of birds singing different tunes.
To me they sound like summer so I don’t mind them . I think the green ones are pretty . But there was one year where you couldn’t walk down the street without covering your eyes because they’d hit you.