Seventeen Year Cicadas

I have lived through several of these, and the article is right. It’s creepy, noisy, crunchy, and strange.

“The 17-year cicadas are coming any day now. And there’s not much anyone should - or could - do about it, except hang on for a wild, eerie ride.”
[…]
“At night, they would be quiet, but when the sun would come up, it was like throwing a switch,” said Chief Eric Tinsley, of the Biltmore Forest Police Department, who was then a town patrolman.

He also remembers the crunching sound of cars running over the dead cicadas left on streets. “It was like popcorn popping,” he said.”
[…]
“It’s a remarkable life cycle. They live many years underground. They have their last hooray, a mating frenzy. They lay their eggs and die very soon.”

The show can be over in a week or two, depending on temperatures, he said.
[…]
“Imagine the sheer biomass. That’s a lot of nutrition being pumped into the ecosystem. The birds will have a field day.”

Just be in the mountains during this time of year and the sound will make you think of every sci-fi film you ever saw ... and then there are the birds ...