Cicada-palooza 2021 is a comin'. Or is it?

cubby said:

Apparently they are all over Princeton!

 Marching north!

A friend of mine in Milford, NJ says that his trees are covered with them.

I keep thinking of them as "marching" sort-of like locusts and then remember that they are already on my property waiting underground to climb my pine trees.

PS: I also read a report from Georgia that some folks were dialing 911 to tell the police that they heard alarms going off which were in fact, -"just" the noisy swarm. Of course it might have been the case that cicadas were breaking into cars.

There was a pretty big brood sometime more recently than 2004 - maybe 5-10 years ago (?)  I remember that we could hear them at our house (from the reservation) and they were even louder and more visible a bit farther west.  One day I was at the Summit Medical Group in Berkeley Heights and they were everywhere there.

I saw one drinking a Pina Colada at Trader Vic's.

My apologies, couldn't resist.

Don't Worry, everyone. They can only emerge under the light of a supermoon Lunar Eclipse. What are the odds of that happening?

I don't remember the last swarm being such a big thing here. I wonder how all of the feral cats respond. I'm hosting 2 in my garden. Both TNRd in case you are still here @RobertRoe

Any sightings in our area?

Don't know about the feral cats, but last time (2004?) our cat *loved* them.  Had to inspect him every time he came to the door to make sure there wasn't one buzzing under his nose. 

(For Morganna and others: new cat is always indoors.)

jamie said:

Any sightings in our area?

 fake news!

In Middlesex County

So are we going to be spared the invasion? Folks in the Baltimore area have told me stories of being overwhelmed with the noise and the crunching underfoot and the all over disgustingness. 

I haven't seen or heard even one yet. Maybe we're immune up here.

I'm disappointed. 

to Morgana:  yes, I am still around.   And I bet that cats would love to play with the cicada.  Better than catnip.  

The app or website Cicada Safari allows you to track reported sitings. No sitings have been reported in this part of NJ. Looks like you will have to go a bit South to see them at this point. 

We went for a bike ride at Nockamixon State Park in PA yesterday and the sound from them was crazy! Thankfully they were just in the trees and not flying into us as we rode the trails. One rider said they were flying into people the previous weekend. 

nohero said:

I know this isn't a politics thread, but I think this still goes here.

 That cartoon is reeeeaaaaaly funny. 

mjc said:

Don't know about the feral cats, but last time (2004?) our cat *loved* them.  Had to inspect him every time he came to the door to make sure there wasn't one buzzing under his nose. 

(For Morganna and others: new cat is always indoors.)

 If you are adding to your collection, I have 6 kittens in my rescue now!

Where else but on MOL will you find info on cicadas and feral cats on the same thread?   

Mark your calendars for 2030, when I believe our local brood is due back.  For this one, we seem to be a bit north of the action.

Morganna, i'm pretty sure your kitties don't want to move to Wisconsin and live with a senior cat who was turned in by his previous owner because he didn't get along with the other pets.  : )

mjc said:

Morganna, i'm pretty sure your kitties don't want to move to Wisconsin and live with a senior cat who was turned in by his previous owner because he didn't get along with the other pets.  : )

 The thing about kittens is they don't recognize "cranky". No matter how hard a cat tries to ignore them they persist and usually wear the adult down. Hmm, there's a slogan in there. Nevertheless they persisted.

Well, they're in Jersey - just not by us - here's a few Jersey videos:

Looks like Princeton is/was a good spot to see them:

I can't but somehow feel disappointed although I'd probably feel differently if they had shown up here in Maplewood. Does anyone know if it's possible that they may still?

kenboy said:

We had a good number the last time around -- definitely much less than 17 years ago -- which I THINK means we won't get many this time. My sense is this brood generally isn't in our part of the state so much, but most of the reporting on this isn't at a very local level, so the whole state gets colored in on a map. 

 If I understand it correctly, there is a separate brood each year and the broods vary in size.  The last really big one was in 2013, I believe, but since then and perhaps most of those between 2004 and then, the broods were considerably smaller.  So I don't think that the big brood in 2013 or thereabouts has any effect on the size of this year's brood.  However, environmental changes might and it does seem as if they are in greater numbers in other parts of the region.

Was down near Princeton a few weeks back and there were a lot there. There was a group of entomologists with butterfly nets (good insight about things like the sounds cicadas make, less about the reason they're called cicadas). One was telling us that as you get further north the soil conditions aren't right -- too cold and other attributes I don't recall. Not sure where the northernmost line is, but seems like it's south of us, which I suppose isn't that surprising considering the change in topography between the Princeton area and here.

No cicada sighting but man has the rabbit population exploded this year.  No complaints, they're cute as hell.  Some seem strangely unafraid.  One popped up about 8 feet from where I was working in my yard and could not be persuaded to go away.  

yes, for the longest time - we only had one.  Somehow he found a mate.

Same here. The baby bunny we keep seeing in our yard is growing up fast!

While sitting outside this morning I heard the rising and falling sound of cicadas for the first time this summer. I imagine that they are part of the "regular" seasonal brood. Somehow gives me a reassuring sense of normalcy, so maybe now I can stop brooding.

I saw one on my front stoop the other day.

That's my sole sighting this year.