Who else is dealing with these cicadas??

And?
They aren't poisonous, they don't bite or sting and they don't harm you in any way, just pluck it out of your hair and put it on the nearest tree.
Same if they get into the house, pick it up and put it (gently) outside - what do you think they are going to do to you?

we have ones called 'green grocer' here and I think they are beautiful:

I picked one up off the road once and put it into the nearest tree because I didn't want it to get run over.

And you!

I don't really care about them flying around, they are harmless. The one thing that is going to get really old is the fact that my dog keeps trying to eat them. He has eaten a few.

I'm in the "I like them as long as they aren't ON me" group! LOL I do love listening to them in the summertime. We live in the country so they tend to get loud. I think they have a competition with the tree frogs to see who can be the loudest.

Welp.... I was thinking that cicadas sounded kind of cool.  I've never seen one before, there are none in Washington State.  But then you had to go and wreck it with this post.  No, Nope, Nada..... I can do anything but snakes and ESPECIALLY not venomous snakes.  No thanks, keep your cicadas (and your snakes!).  

 Same here, except for the crossed out parts, LOL.

monklady123 and elaine, I'm in Northern VA too, so the sound has been gradually increasing since the weekend. Today they've been pretty loud and I expect it will be worse in the next week or so. Yesterday I had to take the cats to the vet (regular visit, they're not ill, TG) and the sidewalks around the vet office were covered with them. DS21 was with me and was only 4 when they last emerged so he doesn't really remember them - he was interested in seeing what the big deal is. We don't get tons in our yard (not the right types of trees apparently), but the wooded areas at the end of our street and behind our house get loads of them. There were some on the screens of our windows that face the backyard today.

DD27 who moved to the PNW last fall is very glad she no longer lives in this area of the country because she was "absolutely traumatized" (her words, not mine) by them back in 2004. She played competitive travel soccer and was freaked out by the crunching sound they made when she ran on them, and of course they were everywhere, including in her hair. Yes, their soccer team still had to practice and play during the brood X emergence - she was aghast and thought they should have called off the season...or at least maybe her cruel parents & coaches shouldn't have made her attend practice/games.   

I warned her brother that he's on his own with whatever sibling retaliation ensues if he decides to send her any pictures.   I assured her I would not send any pix. I don't mind the sound either, it sounds like summer - except when it gets super loud. My office/craft room sits at the back of the house. Our backyard buts up against the wooded area where there are a lot of them, so the sound is a little ways removed most of the time.

Thankfully we don't have them here....I would not be a fan!

They aren't here, yet. They will be soon enough. My biggest issue with them is the noise. I can't stand it.

The occasional cicada song is pretty and says, “summer!” When you have a brood/swarm of biblical proportions, it is something else. Last time they emerged, we were amazed that we could be driving in the car, windows up, and stereo on and then have to turn the stereo up - significantly- because the cicadas were drowning out the car stereo - with the windows closed. 

I don’t find them creepy and spent the last emergence photographing them (and have already shot quite a few pics in the past 3 days) - I’m fairly certain I have a scrapbooking layout somewhere - but I don’t think that anyone who hasn’t lived through a Brood X emergence can quite understand what it is like. It really is something out of the Old Testament. They are everywhere and get into everything. Which would be fine, but they are each 2” long - not small. And they are ear splitting loud. 

You are going to think I made this up, but I swear I heard it on NPR today. Apparently there is some spore that is affecting about 10% the cicada population this year. They don’t realize it, but the moment they emerge from the ground, their back end falls off. Since they don’t realize they have lost their back ends, they try and mate anyway, but of course it doesn’t work because the parts aren’t there. The good news for the cicadas is that this spore apparently gives them a natural high, so they are blissfully unaware that their back end has fallen off and they are not actually mating.

I really did hear that on NPR. I could not have made that up!

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We have a small creek in our backyard and this time of year when the tadpoles hatch, it can get really noisy at there when it gets dark.

We haven’t seen evidence of the cicadas yet this year. We had them about ten years ago when we were in the other house. Although I love to keep all my windows open, I was having to close them just because the noise was so deafening.

As a little girl, I loved to collect the shells of the cicadas when they shed. My mama said I’d have had hundreds if she didn’t make me throw them away. She would give me coffee cans to keep my “collection” in with the rule that they had to stay outside.

From 2004:
“The cicadas should consider themselves lucky they're bugs. In some areas, the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health Administration could cite them for exceeding the 85- to 90-decibel limit set by law, according to spokeswoman Linda Sherman.”

www.baltimoresun.com/bal-te.cicada26may26-story.html

haha!! that video was funny- how creeped out the newscaster was, and the guy saying, 'wait until you see what I bring tomorrow- snacks for everyone!!'

It's too bad the guy they interviewed didn't say the only thing they're interested in doing is mating, and that they only live for a couple weeks.