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Trivial Pursuits => Wild Card => Topic started by: wombat on May 21, 2004, 11:54:18 pm

Title: Cicadas
Post by: wombat on May 21, 2004, 11:54:18 pm

In some thread that I can't remember because it wasn't about cicadas Paul asked for a recording of them.  I was about to try and figure out how to make one when they had this story on NPR.  There's an audio clip there.

http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1905553.html

I don't think a recording can really give the effect, though.  It's not the noise itself that's so special - it's the fact that you're outside, hearing it so loud from all around you.

Title: Cicadas
Post by: CortJstr on May 22, 2004, 12:03:22 am

There's a tree next to my building that is completely covered in shells. You actually can't see the mulch because of all the shells.

Title: Cicadas
Post by: Nabubrush on May 22, 2004, 01:57:23 am

I just heard that NPR story on the way in from work this evening - they were surprisingly loud.

Title: Cicadas
Post by: AugustWest on May 22, 2004, 02:15:25 am

I am astounded because we have not seen a single one in our neck of the woods.

Title: Cicadas
Post by: wombat on May 22, 2004, 01:25:37 pm

If you live somewhere that's been all dug up and redeveloped in the past 17 years you won't see any.  But I had the idea you lived out in the middle of the woods somewhere?

Some more important cicada info, from the web page of my former employer, a university whose name shall not be spoken:

You Can Eat Cicadas, But Are They Kosher?
Not according to the Orthodox Union (OU), an international kosher certification agency - "The Mishnah lists the requirements needed for an insect to be considered kosher. It must have four legs plus two which are the length of the insect which are used for jumping. It must be known as a 'chagov,' translated as grasshopper, and have a tradition handed down from generation to generation that it is a kosher insect. The cicada is not a kosher insect."

Title: Cicadas
Post by: Nabubrush on May 22, 2004, 02:22:24 pm

Also on the radio they talked about a fellow who fried up a batch of cicadas with the butter and garlic. He apparently had a massive allergic reaction, but mmmm crunchy.
This message is part of my continuing campaign to defeat the arbitrary and facile divisions in this forum.

Title: Cicadas
Post by: AugustWest on May 22, 2004, 06:24:25 pm

Quote from: "wombat"

If you live somewhere that's been all dug up and redeveloped in the past 17 years you won't see any.  But I had the idea you lived out in the middle of the woods somewhere?

My house was built in 1904 and to the best of my knowledge, the only places that have been dug up are where my pool sits and under the patio I built.  Is there a range that they cover?  I remember cicada invasions as a child, but I grew up about 200 miles SW of here.

Title: Cicadas
Post by: wombat on May 22, 2004, 07:05:20 pm

http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/michigan_cicadas/Periodical/BroodX.html

That's a map I found of the range of Brood X - which appears, unhelpfully, to imply that maybe you'll see them and maybe you won't.

Title: Cicadas
Post by: arkabee on May 24, 2004, 01:48:10 pm

Quote from: "AugustWest"

My house was built in 1904 and to the best of my knowledge, the only places that have been dug up are where my pool sits and under the patio I built.  Is there a range that they cover?  I remember cicada invasions as a child, but I grew up about 200 miles SW of here.

i haven't seen nary a one, nor heard them, herebouts either.

Title: Cicadas
Post by: Carlos del Vaca on May 24, 2004, 02:38:14 pm

The area around my office is freakin' West Cicada Town.

The noise they collectively make is a lot like the sound made by Aku (http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/samurjak.htm) when he is released in the premier episode of Samurai Jack.  It's freaky.