Here's the one picture I was able to get of the cicadas. These stones are about 18 inches square and run between the parking garage and my building. I was standing in the parking garage to take this picture, because so many cicadas were flying around and I didn't want them landing on me. In fact, when I first walked up to that area and saw how many were crawling on the ground, before I could take a picture one landed on my stomach area, and naturally I freaked. They don't bite, they don't carry germs, but I do have this thing about "flying bugs" coming at me, lol. There was a higher concentration of the cicadas underneath one of the tables that's out there for people to sit at. I would have loved to have gotten a picture of the cicadas crawling up the trunks of the trees, they were all lined up, reminding me of the old bread lines from the Great Depression.

I've decided that I am VERY happy not to have the cicadas by my apartment. There are so many of them flying around, crawling around and buzzing in the trees by my work. The buzzing is so loud we can hear it inside our office. As I leave work to come home, they fly across the road, landing on the car, landing on the road. They're sort of funny to watch fly; I think their wings aren't made for any long term flying, so they sort of dip and twist almost out of control, lol. Definitely an experience to see. Since they are more active in the late afternoon (when I took the above photo), I'm going to take my camera to work again tomorrow and try to see if there are any out in the morning, when I won't be attacked by them. Within a couple weeks, the females will have laid their eggs in the trees, and then died. Once the eggs hatch, the nymphs drop to the ground, burrow down to find tree roots where they stay for 17 years, to emerge in 2024, molt, mate, and start the process all over again.

For those brave enough, here's a link to CicadaMania, a website with pictures and videos of the cicadas, many close up photos, so you can see the red beadie eyes. I haven't seen any with white, blue, or mustard colored eyes yet. Not sure if the variance in eye color is widespread, or limited to just some areas. Here's another interesting website with some interesting facts about cicadas.

Ok, shake off that buggie feeling, and scroll down to my next post, lol.