Circadas 17 year Journey arrives June 2013!

The Circadas are Comming at the end of May / June

Here comes Swarmageddon! The name is a direct derivation of the Latin cicada, meaning “tree cricket” The 17-year cicadas are found mainly in the northern, eastern, and western part of their range.
Cicadas, large, ugly, noisy bugs that can be devastating to vegetation but are harmless to people. Cicadas are benign to humans under normal circumstances and do not bite or sting in a true sense, but may mistake a person’s arm or other part of their body for a tree or plant limb and attempt to feed,
In January 1912, when New York’s state entomologist issued a report on the appearance of the insects in 1911, he was nearly breathless: “The large size of the insects, their immense numbers, the accompanying roar, the spectacular injury and unique life history, all combine to excite popular interest in the periodical visitations of this remarkable species.”
 

Ciracadas are good to eat.

Experts say that the best way to eat cicadas is to collect them in the middle of the night as they emerge from their burrows and before their skins harden. When they are in this condition—like soft-shell crabs—they can be boiled for about a minute. It is said they taste like asparagus or clam-flavored potato.
Mature cicadas should be boiled while still alive to kill any bacteria, and already-dead cicadas should never be harvested because they could be decomposing. Also, anyone with allergies to shellfish, which belong to the same family as cicadas, should avoid the bugs altogether.
– Cicadas sautéed in butter and garlic.
– Dipped in chocolate for a sweet, crunchy snack.
Ice cream laced with cicadas is not illegal to serve to the public are boiled bugs were covered with brown sugar and milk chocolate, then mixed in with an ice cream base of brown sugar and butter

Facts: Only the males sing.
Circada Roar
Cicada song
Cicadas in Greece
A single Cicada calling
The females are lured to the sound and fly nearer. A female responds to a male with a flick of her wings. The two gradually draw close to one another until they meet for mating.
• In China male cicadas are kept in cages in people’s homes so that the homeowners can enjoy the cicadas’ songs.
Musician and philosopher David Rothenberg is playing in a musical celebration 17 years in the making: the emergence of the cicadas. This summer, these noisy insects will come out in droves to molt and mate—filling the air with their characteristic buzzing. Explore the extraordinary mating rituals of these and other six-legged creatures to find out what their songs are saying, why they’re saying it, and how this knowledge is impacting our understanding of communication, behavior, and the ecosystem in Cicada Serenades: Music, Mating, and Meaning.
Most authors are agreed that the cicada was used by the Chinese as a symbol of rebirth, although a few suggest additional (17, 18) or alternative meanings (3) such as “harvest time,” “autumn,” “fertility and abundance,” or “life giving principle.”
The depictions of cicadas on the early bronzes vary from quite realistic (6) to highly stylized (13, 16, 17, 22, 24) and almost leaflike (16). In some cases they are associated with another beast. Munsterberg (17) says that “in several instances the tiger is shown spitting out a cicada.” Later he says that “the t’ao t’ieh daemon is also frequently shown with a cicada on his outstretched tongue.” Bachhofer (2) refers to dragons in moderate relief, “their bodies… covered with a diminutive cicada pattern.” Speaking of bronze vessels he states that the heads of serpents are identical with the heads of cicadas. Certainly the “snake-head” with a “tongue” that rattles, terminating handle of a ritual bronze sword shown on page 39 in Fontein and Wu (13), looks more like a cicada than a snake head. Could the rattle have even been an imitation of a cicada’s call? Even a rattlesnake does not rattle with its head, and in this case there is apparently no snake body, only the “head.” The rattle mechanism looks like a wing, not a snake’s tongue.
In addition to bronzes, cicadas have been found decorating Shang white pottery ware (2). Laufer (16) reproduces (from ancient manuscripts) cicadas on ceremonial jade axes, jade cups, and a jade buckle which also includes a mantis.
These “sacred animal symbols” (17), cicadas, were used during the Han period (202 B.C. – 220 A.D.) or earlier as jade carvings (9), variously called “funeral jades,” “amulets of death,” “tongue amulets,” or “Han y?,” meaning “placed in the mouth,” according to Burling and Hart (3), who note that the term does not mean “made in the Han dynasty,” as some students assume, but that the items so designated “may date from many centuries earlier or later.”