CICADAs

I have one question for the scientific community: ‘Where are the cicadas?’  For weeks I have been hearing on evening news reports that the members of one of the main 17-year cycles is emerging and that human activity shall soon be drowned out by their insistent mating buzzing.  There was even a write-up in the latest Time magazine.  But I haven’t yet heard a peep.

I do know they can be loud.  Some years ago I attended an outdoor presentation of the Fantastiks and the singing was nearly drowned out by the bugs in the surrounding trees.  I thought the current silence might be due to having a lot of birds around my property (because of the feeder) as these bugs are like candy for them, but I still would have been able to hear them on my walks when away from the house.

Oh well, perhaps I should just count my blessings and be happy they haven’t emerged yet for some reason.  Maybe the unseasonably chilly May we had killed them off.