I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Brooding

(insert ominous music here)
Brood 13 is coming. The end if neigh! Flee! Flee for your lives!

No, seriously, Brood 13 is coming. It's an invasion. I'm not joking.

Unless you like the cicadas, if you're in the mid-west, this will be a summer of hell for some of you. Brood 13 is one of the largest cicadid populations, made up of two species (I think). After growing underground in their larval stage for seventeen years, they are emerging this summer to suck on trees, find a mate, and die. And while they're doing all that they'll create a racket louder than airplanes landing.

I lived in Cincinnati the last time Brood 13 was above ground (or actually, when the parents of this brood created this brood). You can't hear much noise off the road in a 4-cylinder car travelling at 65mph with the windows rolled up. You can hear them, though. And when I say they're comming, I mean they're comming in the billions.

Also, please don't spray them as almost everything finds them tasty and feasts on them (birds, racoons, dogs, cats, even some people).

I expect sometime in June, at the height of their mating, you'll see it mentioned on the news.

So until then. Run! Run as if you're life depended on it! They're back! Ayie!

4 comments:

Camille Alexa said...

You can't make up science cooler than nature already has.

Steve Buchheit said...

Yep, it's either exceptionally cool ('cause they look like 50's "Radioactive Bug Eats Chicago" movie bugs. Red eyes, they have red eyes, so help me God red eyes.) or if you have a phobia to bugs, or want a good night's sleep, a living nightmare.

Todd Wheeler said...

Channeling Ralphie, there? ;-)

Sounds like a story bone; truth is stranger.

I did a brief search as I wondered what they might sound like. There's a nice post here with a link to audio (though I doubt it does the buggers justice) as well as a recipe!

Steve Buchheit said...

Yep, a little Ralphie never hurt anybody. Some of that movie was filmed in Cleveland, and we now have a museum/attraction called the "Christmas Story House" in Tremont (a Cleveland Suburb). My sister-in-law like "It's a Wonderful Life" and my wife watches it as well. Me, it's "A Christmas Story" that I have to watch.

And, oooh, recipies! Crunchy. Unfortunately, I don't like where Brood 13 will make it's appearance (I understand they are terrorizing Chicago right at the moment). Although we normally have a few cicada around. Nothing like when we were in Cincinnati. That was freakish.