The Dreaded Cicadas Emerge From 13 Year Slumber in Middle Tennessee - video

Please stay away from my plants you millions of cicadas.

OMG I wouldn't be coming out of my house. Garden or not. I would be on lock down.

you got those little jokers everywhere. here in tullahoma i have only seen a few soo far.

They won't hurt your plants (or you) since they don't eat during this stage of their life. Their only purpose at this point is to mate. The noise the males make is their way of attracting females. Only the males make noise. I love cicadas. I have a bar of lavender French soap... and it's in the shape of a cicada.

We're supposed to get them here in GA too, according to the internets. Even if they don't eat my plants, I can't say I'm looking forward to the noise.

I'm actually jealous. We had Brood X about 4-5 years ago. Yes, the little buggers are loud, and they are everywhere, but they are really quite cool. The kids love them.

We get them every year... late July/August. Not "swarms" of them... but we hear them every summer singing from the tops of the trees on very hot days.

when I was five or six I would spend time with my grandparents out in the Irish Hills part of Michigan in an old one room schoollhouse.Behind the schoolhouse was a massive hickory tree that seemed a thousand feet high and during summers the Cicadas would play their music really loud.Well ,I was a very sensitive youngster and I was actually afraid of them.I wasn't afraid of bees because they had a colony of wild honey bees between the wood shutter and the window and hummed me to sleep every night. As time went on I became an avid fisherman and learned those "scary"bugs made superior fish bait. In AR,the population of these insects are enormous.When I take a walk now I hold my mouth closed so I don't choke on Cicadas.They can kill you that way.............

Stacie, I hope everybody's right and they won't hurt your plants. We've had them before here on the Gulf Coast, but I've never seen that many of them here EVER! We actually used to love finding the empty shells as kids. I've never had them around when I've had a veggie garden, though, and can't blame you for being nervous about it!

Just hang in there and remember, this, too, shall pass!!!

Wow - I'm with middlemamma on this one. Yuck! I had no idea such a thing existed. A 13 year slumber? Wild.

I am quoting (more or less ) from Wikipedia...."......Cicada nymphs (youngins) suck xylem (plant 'veins' that either flow up the plant or down{i don't remember my botony let alnoe know hoe to spell it])from the roots of various species of trees like oak,cypress,ash and maple etc. " They go on to say.........While it is widely held in folklore that adult cicadas do not eat.......they have their own sucking mouthparts and also drink sap......" That shuts the door on amnesty for cicadas at my place. I wondered quietly in my head why the beautiful box elder tree in my front yard had so many pretty green leaves on them when I first arrived here and then,when that insidious hysterical cadence began,my once lovely leafed box elder had holy leaves......Gotta love 'em though!Cicada is on the menu in the jungles of South America as well as the Congo and pretty much wherever they are plentiful amidst Traditional living Native peoples.It also stated it was reported that females of the species were meatier! I did see my cats eating them with no distress! I will try them this summer and report back........Got a smoker for Christmas

Yea, James, you do that - let us know how they taste! Probably like chicken, huh?

Fried grasshoppers are supposed to be a crunchy treat. But the only thing I've tried is chocolate covered toasted ants. Taste like chocolate covered rice krispies.



Kay