Alien invasion

RAM · Post by **RAM** » Sun May 08, 2011 9:36 am

This happens evey thirteen years, an amazing event-the cyclical locust invasion (sometimes its the 17 year brood). They have just started to emerge here in Nashville. The noise will soon be ear piercing as literally millions of these things seek mates. They will be done with their doins' in about a month, but in the meantime the fishing can prove very interesting. Last time this cycle came out I had a great smallmouth day on my old favorite river, the Harpeth. But trout, redeye, bluegill, even carp go bonkers glutting themselves.
But there are problems in addition to the noise. They are attracted to power mowers-the vibrations sound like hot females apparently. The rascals fly into your face and make the normally difficult job of grass cutting downright miserable. You can even hear them over the sound of the mower!
The mated females will climb trees, lay eggs in the bark, and die. The larvae hatch out, fall to the ground and bury themselves where they spend thirteen years in dormancy. Nutty plan, but it sure works.

Awaiting the orange-eyed hatch in Nashville, Bad Bob

Rick H · Post by **Rick H** » Sun May 08, 2011 9:43 am

The Moral of this Story is...Don't cut the lawn...GO FISHIN'

Don Champion · Post by **Don Champion** » Sun May 08, 2011 1:56 pm

Bob - the solution is to hold your mouth open as you cut the grass!

Steve · Post by **Steve** » Sun May 08, 2011 2:39 pm

One season when I was a kid, every time I came home from a bike ride, the tires were coated with cicada pieces and slime. They were coating the streets as well as lawns.

BB, what you need is a boost in your cicada killer wasp population. This terrifying beast can haul a cicada to its burrow under your lawn, where a newly-hatched grub eats the cicada. Trouble is that they usually show up too late in the year to keep the cicada population down.

The wasps need better training--first, to arrive earlier in the year and second, to avoid the hassle of making their own burrows by just invading the cicada burrows.

RAM · Post by **RAM** » Sun May 08, 2011 7:50 pm

Forgot to say that us old southern guys call them locusts, but we actually know better. We call crayfish crawdads and the real old-timers called bass trout.
I suspect the wasp cure would be worse than the cicada problem. We need a few good cicada recipes! Roasted whole won't work though. Those orange eyes staring at you!
Cheers Bad Bob

Bill Sonnett · Post by **Bill Sonnett** » Mon May 09, 2011 2:20 pm

Never forget one year driving a couple of hundred miles to catch the migration of southern Warblers in southern Ohio and upon arriving could I not hear a single bird over the din of "17 year Locust". We always had the larger Annual Cicadas whinning away in our yard at home but they can't hold a candle to those smaller redish-orange visitors. Thank god they only show up every 17 years!

Steve · Post by **Steve** » Tue May 10, 2011 5:24 am

We need a few good cicada recipes!

Ask these guys: http://www.cicadarestaurant.com/

RAM · Post by **RAM** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:16 pm

Cicadas have about done their thing. Much quieter now. Dead cicadas everywhere. Thirteen years in the ground, two weeks to find a willing female, one time, and...death! No wonder they go bonkers for a while!
BB

Alan Baracco · Post by **Alan Baracco** » Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:14 pm

Bob,

Thought you might like to know, your cicada are semelparous.

Alan

RAM · Post by **RAM** » Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:30 pm

They are also cacophonous!
BB