Brood X cicadas, underground for the past 17 years, will rise, roar and mate like mad in a way we haven’t seen since 2004.
Scott Ott, Stephen Green and Bill Whittle create 20 new episodes of Right Angle each month thanks to our Members. Join us now, and explore the full archive of this and other shows.
Video below hosted at Rumble.
30 replies on “They’re Back from 2004: Billions of Brood X Cicadas Will Rise, Roar and Mate Like Mad”
Last time we had a big brood a local creamery actually made cicada ice cream and sold it until the FDA shut it down because they couldn’t quality-check the cicadas. I think they fried them coated in brown sugar which hardened into a sugary glaze before adding them to the ice cream.
Every time you mention the Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, MO I smile. I’ve lived in mid Missouri since 1982. Mexico is about 30 miles from here.
I remember these from their last eruption. The howl was like acoustic feedback – day and night for maybe 72 hours. Trashed the leaves, plants, local crops. Oh joy….
SW Ohio here, cicada central. I’ve already prepped my grandson (age 3.5) that they are big, ugly, with creepy red eyes (they look like something alien IMO) and completely harmless. Can’t pinch, bite, sting… just ugly. He’s ready!!
This is global chirping! We only have 12 years before this crop of cicadas kills the planet! Largest crop of annoying critters ever!
watch out for cicada killers, they are scary big
My introduction to cicada’s was in the summer of 1984. I had just moved to Las Vegas, NV to attend UNLV, when I heard them for the first time. Not only was it deafening, but I noticed my voice sounded like I had a lisp when I spoke.. Has anyone else noticed that?
A colleague of mine and I use the cicadas as an example of why prime numbers are important. We may not understand it, but nature knows that primes are prime. That all the “generations” of cicadas appear after a prime number of years has passed (1, 3, 7, 13, & 17) is a favorite nature phenomenon.
Noticed it too. However there are some prime numbers between 1 and 17 that were missed in cicada generations: 2, 5, and 11. Yes, I am a math geek. Trained as a Chemical Engineer, 20+ years programming and do math in my head.
…
You sir are a scholar and a gentlemen. Not very many people would make that connection to the old rubber-suit monsters of Ultraman and the various early “Henshin” shows. 😀
As for eating them, insects can carry some nasty parasites-ewww. Interesting video and stories. Thanks!
Should we wear a mask and goggles?
Oh, great! Now that COVID seems to be on the wane, the people who want to protect us from everything will enact another round of mask mandates. Don’t give them any ideas! (JK) 🙂
Ask Doctor Fauci. See what he mandates ….
I couldn’t help myself. Once every 4641 years, all the broods would be out at once. Cicadapocalypse. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
OH NO! I can see the radical left locking themselves into their homes in total fear! I can remember 2004 in upstate NY the swarm wasn’t that big, but there definitely was a lot of them. I only saw a few live ones and lots of skins, but the noise was constant!
Tell the main stream media that the cicadas eat people and are like piranhas Then watch and laugh.
You’re a very naughty boy, putting such devilish notions in our minds. Now, where’s my media contact book?
OH,OH! Now my sides hurt from laughing! I hope I’m alive to see the Cicadapocalypse!
Cicadas: Trump’s fault.
5 stars for the expression of appreciation and wonder.
I grew up in Chicago suburbs and went to school in Urbana/Champaign. During the Chicago 1990 cicada season, I bummed a ride home from school with a friend who drove a Jeep Renegade. It was June and beautiful, so we took the top and doors off, and drove north singing with the Queen CD at the top of our lungs. We got to his parents neighborhood, in one of the many heavily wooded areas of NE Illinois, about dusk. The attack came from the trees – cicadas diving at our unprotected heads. It was too dark for sunglasses and you can’t quickly raise the top on a Jeep Renegade. We slowed down to a creeping 20 mph for the last 2-3 miles, because it hurt less to be hit with a cicada missile at that speed. We parked in the garage, cleaned out the debris, raised the top, and went inside for dinner. The drive to my Dad’s house later was much less dramatic, though my friend was very afraid one of the chitinous mini-monsters was going to punch a hole in his expensive soft top.
The Chitinous Mini-Monsters is the name of my new band!
Thank you, gentlemen. Lots of fun!
I usually refer to these types of episode as palate cleansers. This would seem to be highly inappropriate given the commentary from the guys.
I did find this tidbit.
The collective song of male cicadas calling for mates can reach up to 100 decibels. Think of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with straight pipes constantly running outside your window.
According to one website, this should happen North and East of me in the DC and Hampton Roads areas of Virginia. Since it will hit DC, it will likely be blamed on Trump.
Palate cleansers, that is exactly right. Also an interesting way to refer to an episode where eating bugs was discussed.
Here I am being a source of totally useless information. There are one, three, seven, thirteen and seventeen year cicadas. Here I know we have one, three and seventeen for sure. Seventeen is the huge brood. They are edible, high in protein and low in fat. One of my 4 dogs, Bella loves them from two years ago. (3 year cicada). She hunts them using a grid search when she does not hear them. She looks in where they typically are. Two of my others startle when they hear one, but she runs to eat it. The last dog does not care at all. Bella is going to be in heaven. But I may have to cut back on her regular food a bit, as she is already a bit overweight. Also note from a friend who fishes. Gather the carcasses, put them in a baggy, and freeze them. Next year, they make fantastic fish bait.
Don’t eat bugs? Try telling that to Bill Gates! Not for him of course, just us serfs
My one memorable part of the Cicada’s last return was that at the time I was living next to a park, heavily wooded. There were so many cicadas making so much continual noise it sounded *exactly* like a phaser from Star Trek TOS going for a few weeks straight.