Cicada Cycles

No, I'm not talking about the new bike store the local cicada's opened last week, but it HAS been a rather cool month here in Virginia. Not so much cool as in weather but cool as in bugs. Normally, I'm the first one to throw my lanky arms in the air screaming for shelter when a bee passes near my face. But who would have "thunk" it that when it comes to these little cool cicada bugs, I'd be head over heels?

These little guys have mistaken most of us for trees, persevering like robots up our legs and arms climbing as high as they can get on anything. The boy cicadas yell like grumpy old men when we gently pick them up and move them to a safe tree, rather than leaving them vulnerable to tires or shoes in the middle of the street or sidewalk. You'd think they wouldn't yell at us - after all, they are 17 years old and we're only trying to help. Oh, hey, wait, that's typical for a 17 year old, now isn't it? Ok, so I take that back - heh. Anyway, they grumble when irritated, but sing their hearts out for their potential mates - how romantic. They don't bite, sting or bother anyone... oh, except for that lady who had one fly in her car window and right into her face causing her to crash her car into a fire hydrant, thereby flooding the streets of Maryland. Except for that.

I feel kind of sorry for these creatures sucking on a root for the majority of their lifetime (long lifetime for a bug!) - working so hard for so long, emerging, mating and then just dying, but they do teach a very good life lesson about cycles. It's been a science project in our front yard for my kids, to say the least. We've been fortunate to see just about every little part of their cycle. We've watched the sticky brown beetle like things emerging from the ground on a warm night right after Mother's Day (which I thought was somewhat appropriate). You could hear them moving in the grass and leaves coming up from the ground. If the cicada's journey to the tree seemed too far (in our human opinion) over the grass and obstacles, we would gently pick them up and give 'em a ride to the tree (we formed the CRL - Cicada Rescue League. Four proud members - Est. May, 2004 - lol...). We watched them start their life's work by climbing to a high spot, latching on tightly to whatever that spot was, and slowly, very slowly, struggle it's little heart out of it's brown skin and emerge a beautiful red-eyed, bright white cicada with wings that had to dry and unfold. I know, most people we know would go, "ewwwwwww, disgusting", but we just loved it. It was amazing to see these little guys fight so hard to get out of that brown shell transforming into a new body, and they didn't care if we watched! Then, as they dried these new little bodies and hardened their skin, they became a striking little black flying creature with bright red eyes. Placid little things, really, with a one-track mind - cicada sex. Well, it's true. So for a while (and is still the case in different parts here) there was this frenzy of singing males and wing-flappin' ladies. There were mating cicada's everywhere - "mommmmm, there are two cicada's stuck together again!". We tried to give them their privacy, but they seemed to me to like the attention. Cicada exhibitionists, I guess. Anyway, I digress. Except for the squished ones, it's likely now that if we see a cicada on the ground, it's a dead one, just exhausted after it completed it's life goal - leaving baby cicada's behind. These babies will hatch in the near future, fall to the ground, dig their little hearts out and attach themselves to a tree root- only to emerge 17 years from now, and then start the cycle all over again. Pretty neat really. When you think of your kids and how old they'll be - or in my other case, how old they WERE when the cicada's emerged before - wow.

So, they show the life cycles of birth, death and rebirth - all the while, working their little hearts out with their life's work. :)

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