Dedicated to cicadas, the most amazing insects in the world.
I’ve made Christmas lights, in the past, from plastic cicada whistles from Australia.
This year I tried something new and used real cicada exuvia (skins/shells) and LED “fairie lights”, which seem to run cool enough that they won’t be a hazard to the fragile skins. They look pretty. I’m still in the testing phase, but the results so far look promising.
These are fairie lights, if you’re not sure what I’m talking about:
New emoji are coming soon. A adult butterfly will be added to the list of insect emoji, which include a beetle, ant, caterpillar (aka larval butterfly) and bee. You know what is missing? A cicada.I doubt we’ll get it now that the emoji are decided by a consortium, but you never know.
It could be this one:
Everyone knows cicadas love to sing (the males) or be serenaded (the females).
A lot of people like to write songs inspired by cicadas. If you search online music stores or YouTube, you’ll find hundreds of songs about cicadas, in every genre imaginable including rap, country, rock, folk, dance, parody, classical and experimental.
Here are some cicada songs:
The Cicada Song by CincyPolly
Genre: Rock.
Cicada Serenade by The Pheromones
Genre: 1980s Rap.
Cicada By Hannah Gansen
Laura Imbruglia sings her song Cicada on a talk show for teens (YouTube Link):
(You might want to skip ahead 20 seconds to when the music starts.)
Here’s one of my favorite bands, Southern Culture on the Skids peforming their song Cicada Rock (YouTube link):
CICADA Song – SICKA CICADAS by Kathy Ashworth:
Not quite a song, but still very much an audio performance about cicadas: Tessa Farmer and David Rothenberg perform Magicicada in Dublin (YouTube Link):
Do you have a favorite cicada song? Let us know in the comments!
Bonus: Another cicada song send by a reader:
CICADA by Liam Titcomb (YouTube link):
And more:
Seventeen Years (a cicada love song) – Lloyd H. Miller (YouTube Link):
Baby Bug by Samm Bennett:
“Seventeen Years” by Jen Schaffer and the Shiners:
I Ate A Cicada Today:
Periodic Cicadas by Dr. Chordate:
No video for this song, but Dr Chordate wrote a song called Periodic Cicadas.
I buy things just because they’re cicada related.
Here is my latest purchase:
This week I bought The 17-Year Locust Tour by the band The Agency. It was recorded in Leetown, West Virginia, and copyrighted in 1993. Periodical cicadas are known as “17-Year Locusts” in the U.S., which is where this band got the name for the album. My guess is the album title was inspired by the Brood XIV emergence of 1991.
I haven’t yet listened to the album from start to finish but it falls into the hard rock genre.
The artwork is very nice and was done by bassist and singer Paul Sager using Corel Draw. I used Corel Draw to create the first Cicada Mania logo.
Update! New packaging for the Clustering Cicada fireworks (thx Roy). Find it here.
The Fourth of July should be fun this year at Roy Troutman’s place. Check out the Clustering Cicada fireworks he found.
“Chirping Cicada” firework from Roy Troutman
Here is a video shot on the 4th of July of a mutli shot cake called the Chirping Cicada.
