AAnightowl
Posts: 451
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 4:49 pm Post subject: Eeeeeeeewwwwwww! |
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This year the spring cicadas [I call them locusts, but my son says those are grasshoppers] are out in overabundance. These are different than the 'dog days' cicadas that come yearly, every two years or 17 years. A few years ago, we had them all at the same time. Right now everything in my yard, garden, fields and woods are covered with them. I hear several states are covered with them, so there is no chance of putting them on the endangered species list without a major nuclear event [no thanks there]. I have been gathering them up in a plastic jar and feeding them to my chickens, but how many bugs can 6 chickens eat? It won't even make a tiny dent in their numbers. At the moment they are stuffed, and not real interested, so I am taking a break. Do you have them where you live ? At least I should get lots of eggs for awhile.
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cherylad
 Regular Plants Contributor
S. Liberty County - Texas
Posts: 5278
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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are you talking about the black & orange looking ones?
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AAnightowl
Posts: 451
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, I think so. The news was telling about them recently, and Missouri is part of where they live. I just do not like them. They do make great chicken food and fishing bait though. I hope there are a lot of other insectivores who will be getting very fat on them.
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cherylad
Regular Plants Contributor
S. Liberty County - Texas
Posts: 5278
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 9:14 pm Post subject: |
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I've seen lots of them! Been stepping on them and sprinkling Sevin dust on some of the plants they really seem to like.
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carolyn keiper
northern ohio
Posts: 2644
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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I guess we don't have them, I have no idea what cicadas you have. Ours are green and tan. We must not have the infestation....yet.
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cherylad
Regular Plants Contributor
S. Liberty County - Texas
Posts: 5278
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| Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 2:08 am Post subject: |
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I'll try to get a pic of the ones we have.
Hubby said they seemed to be "boiling out of the ground"
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stratsmom
Southern Oregon
Posts: 2571
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| Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 2:59 am Post subject: |
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I've heard of them but never seen them. Don't think I want to 
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AAnightowl
Posts: 451
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| Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 4:05 am Post subject: |
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These are black with orange stripes and red eyes... gross. We have all the other kinds too, but not till summer.
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RJ
Oakland, Michigan
Posts: 36
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| Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 2:07 pm Post subject: |
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They may be a pain in the butt when invaded in numbers. I have found Grass hoppers to make good fishing bait.
Tie some up and cast a line
jiggle jiggle fish on the line
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RJ
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Droopy
Regular Plants Contributor
Western Norway
Posts: 9336
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| Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 8:26 pm Post subject: |
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Fortunately we don't have that problem. We've only got tiny grasshoppers and I've never seen them in large numbers. Come to think of it, I don't want to either. I'm sorry for your garden, and I hope your chickens will give a good yeald.
This year's lemming year, and the mountain roads are reportedly full of squased lemmings. I just hope the arctic fox population will increase because of it, and the grouse population too.
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AAnightowl
Posts: 451
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| Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 11:47 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Droopy, Can you show a picture of lemmings? I have heard of them, but never seen any. Do they really commit suicide in large numbers ? Around here, hawks and other raptors hunt and live on roadkill. They like to sit atop the power lines and watch for any new roadkill. 
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AAnightowl
Posts: 451
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| Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 1:36 am Post subject: |
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I was just out walking my dogs, and they are popping up out of the ground almost everywhere. You step on them whether you want to or not. The dogs are eating them up, I have some new birds eating them up. I sure hope the night things will be eating them also. When they shed their skin that they are in when they emerge from the ground, they resemble a moth at first. They sit around very sluggish until they turn dark colored. Then they climb all the plants they can and go up into the trees and make their racket and MATE. They lay their eggs on/in the twigs and limbs. After awhile, the twigs and limbs with the eggs weaken and fall off of the trees. Then they go into the ground and do their pupa & larva whatever until it is time for them to come up and repeat the cycle.
It almost reminds me of the summer of 1978 in Central Texas. We were in the Ft Hood area, and there was a PLAGUE of ticks. The ground was alive with millions and millions of ticks. They got into the houses and on the furniture and curtains, etc. Our poor Irish setter's ears looked like beaded purses with ticks. Our landlord also had an Irish setter and took her to the vet's. He said CATTLE dip as dog dip was nowhere near strong enough to fight them. Our landlord dipped both dogs weekly, and then they were okay. It was all over the local news that summer.
Thankfully, this is not quite so severe, but it is a lot of these darn things.
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GMB27
Devon
Posts: 54
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| Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:27 pm Post subject: |
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We dont have cicidas problems in the UK, at least, im not sure that we have them at all, although im really interested to see what theyre like as it seems they come in various colours! If anybody has a picture, feel free to post it up! Thanks
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Daniel Mazur
Illinois
Posts: 100
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| Posted: Wed May 25, 2011 1:51 pm Post subject: |
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If you google(image) "cicada" GMB27 you'll find several species pictures of them. The informative link I've posted above is the topic here about the periodic cicada which is invading parts of the U.S. right now. They'll be hitting Illinois (where I'm at) about july.
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