Saturday, July 10, 2004
The Great Cicada Hoax?OK, so where the hell are they? I haven't heard a single one yet. I remember as a kid hearing that droning going on and on all summer long. Now they say it's over and I've heard nothing.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -
Their droning love songs have faded, the skies are free of their
tumbling flights and the carcasses that littered sidewalks have washed
away.
The Brood X cicadas, vintage 2004, are gone.
But in the trees of several mid-Atlantic and Midwest states, the next generation is just beginning its 17-year life. Within the next few weeks, billions of eggs deposited in tree branches will hatch and rain down tiny white nymphs no bigger than sesame seeds with beady red eyes.
They will burrow through the dirt to tree roots and won't emerge as adults until 2021. Maybe it has something to
do with the fact that most of northern New Jersey has been dug up,
paved over, dug up again and repaved for the past 17 years. Maybe
they're all dead up here. Maybe they've all been abducted by aliens.
Maybe they don't really exist but are part of some great conspiracy. Maybe I'm just nuts for writing this. I always hated the look of those ugly-ass bugs anyway. File under The Great Outdoors. 1:49:43 PM  Go ahead, make my day [] trackback []
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