Distributed Mind

Cicadas

Well, the seventeen year cicadas have come to Bloomington. This particular batch is evidently called Brood X (X as in 10, though at the moment I think "X" might be more appropriate).

They are everywhere at the moment. I can still walk without stepping on them, but if they get worse, I may not be able to. The trees are covered with them - some of the trees on campus had one on each leaf. Very scary looking little insects. I described them as a cross between a fly and a cricket - with the size of the latter - with big red eyes. The eyes are probably the scariest part. Scarier than their appearance are the sounds they make. The air is filled with this almost mechanical whir. They also make a more ordinary (though slightly annoying) buzzing sound when they move their wings (they aren't always flying when they do that). They seem rather stupid, by the way, which makes them all that much more disturbing somehow.

(I found one blogger from IU who has some good pictures of them. I especially like his picture of cicadas on a tree, though.)

posted at 02:18:50 on 05/22/04 by ben - Category: General

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