Cicada Mania

This story has been all over the news, so I’m posting it. Champ the drug sniffing dog nearly chokes to death on 4 cicadas (video report). Don’t let your pets gorge themselves on cicadas. Like anything that’s an inch and a half long or longer, cicadas can become lodged in your pet’s throat, so keep a mindful eye on their insect dining habits.

Here’s one last video for you. A bunch of cicadas hanging off a thistle plant. Nothing too exciting…

Brood XIII is all but gone in and few select areas (like Westmont IL for instance). Will you miss them? You might find a couple stragglers next year, but you’re going to have to wait until 2024 for the next Brood XIII emergence.

At this point you should start to see flagging from the Brood XIII cicadas: brown, dead leaves where the cicadas laid their eggs. This blog has a good picture of flagging. Don’t worry: the cicadas have helped out the tree by pruning the weak leaves and branches.

There is good news: the Tibicen cicadas are beginning to emerge. Tibicens emerge every year in small numbers — if you’re patient, should be able to find one of these shy cicadas in your yard or local park.

If you’ve willing to travel, you can see and hear the Brood XIV next year too.

Deanna’s cicada photos on Flickr are a nice representation of the Brood XIII emergence. Check them out whenever you want to reminisce.

More Brood XIII photos to come, and lots of other cicada fun is coming up, so stay tuned!

Update: make sure you check out all the cool images people added to Comments section of the CicadaMania MySpace page.