Back in May of 1998 a storm of 13-year periodical cicada emerged, leaving their shed castings among many a trunk. This year is Brood XIX’s turn to reign (or more literally, ‘rain’) from the sky and drive us crazy with their insidious maddening reverberating song. This population is due to invade Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Oklahoma, along with Middle TN as illustrated on this map. Here was my source for the map as well as a news article.

:o The horror...

We had them here last year. We don't want them again this year.

Sorry, but I LOVE cicadas. Call me mad, but they're a fond memory, that and the smell of charcoal briquettes in the grill, and the promise of a b-ball game on a fair summer night.

Lightning bugs,
home-made strawberry ice cream
shishkabobs,

FWD 20 years and add a fine craft brew to that mix and we've got a party!

Those darn things would follow me when I mowed the yard!

Ugh. When we moved to NC in 1999, there was a brood hatching that summer. You'd drive down the road and it would look like a buzzing cloud you were driving into.

I don't mind the noise that much. It's just stepping on the dead ones all over everywhere! Reminds me of stomping locusts for my granddad in his garden but we got paid a nickle a piece for those.

Knit Wit

Ugh! I remember being terrorized by these things when I was a little kid living in Paris, TN.
So glad they didn't follow me north!

It's just stepping on the dead ones all over everywhere

Oh good, my dogs will have snacks. I should save $ on puppy treats!

*puts on nerd-thick reading glasses with tape on the frame* The ones that were in Gatlinburg last year included the annual or periodical genuses Tibicen, Diceroprocta, or Okanagana. Brood XIX will be a swarm of slightly smaller cicada, such a high concentration that wildlife of all kinds will feast to their heart's content and there will still be leftovers for us to drive over and step on. If the swarm is thick this year, it means our ecosystem has faired well the past 13 years and humans have not paved over too many of the larvae.