# I pit cicadas **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 8, 2007, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423 "2007-09-08T00:18:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2007, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/21 "2007-09-08T19:43:15Z")
[QUOTE=bdgr] When I was a kid we had them everywhere at our house. I spent an entire summer with my daisy bb gun doing nothing every day but killing them. I shot over 100 in one day…bb’s are cheap. to this day that neighborhood is pretty well cicada free…that was about 1974 I think… [/QUOTE] Umm…what are you doing this weekend? ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/22 "2007-09-08T21:17:49Z")
Move to Denver, there are hardly any. About one per block. It’s very interesting when bicycling through neighborhoods to hear the sounds change slightly, block to block. Note: I love cicadas. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/23 "2007-09-08T21:23:36Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir] Umm…what are you doing this weekend? [/QUOTE] lol ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/24 "2007-09-09T00:39:54Z")
I love 'em, too. We don’t get the thousands, though, we get a small number each year, instead of gobs of 'em every so many years. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/25 "2007-09-11T16:28:36Z")
[QUOTE=Kneepants Erasmus, the Humanist] ☹ I want cicadas. And crickets. I live on a busy street; the only sounds I get are those of cars and drunken frat boys vomiting. That’s the recipe for romance, I tell ya. [/QUOTE] If there aren’t trees, or the trees weren’t there several years ago, you won’t get cicadas. They emerge from the ground as adults, noisily find mates, and lay eggs in the branch tips of trees. Then they die. Their entire adult lives are spent in romance. They don’t even eat, as adults. They get one wild, yammering night in a leafy singles bar, and then it’s over. When the eggs hatch, the larvae fall down and burrow into the ground. They spend the next 12 or 17 years quietly sucking on tree roots. Some folks think their lives are boring and pointless; they might ponder the lives of cicadas. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/26 "2007-09-11T18:51:21Z")
Sounds good to me. Your adult life not eating and devoted to romance? But I still wish they’d DO IT QUIETLY. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/27 "2007-09-11T19:07:47Z")
Was [this](http://www.flickr.com/photos/65571116@N00/1235413570/) the culprit? ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2007, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/28 "2007-09-11T19:13:57Z")
They are the sound of summer to me too. Florida doesn’t have them and when I go up to Long Island for visits, the sound of the cicada’s song is really quite comforting. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/29 "2007-09-12T00:50:09Z")
[QUOTE=Foxy40] They are the sound of summer to me too. Florida doesn’t have them and when I go up to Long Island for visits, the sound of the cicada’s song is really quite comforting. [/QUOTE] Florida most certainly does have them, at least the NE portion (dunno about Orlando)-they’re annuals and don’t have life cycles measured by prime number yearly intervals tho. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/30 "2007-09-12T02:11:31Z")
No piss? No vinegar?? No tales of dangerous motorcycling conditions or emergency surgery to remove a buzzing cicada from your pet’s throat??? What a let down. I’ll give it a 1 (for correct spelling) and voice my dissatisfaction by pointing out this thread would’ve worked just as fine had it been bolted onto the end of the [Chinese Butterfly](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=435474) rant from a few days past. ---
**Author:** ![Zany\_Zeolite\_Zipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/4af34b/32.png) [@Zany\_Zeolite\_Zipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zany_Zeolite_Zipper)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/31 "2007-09-12T02:47:49Z")
[QUOTE=divemaster] I’m a big fan of cicadas. What I find especially interesting is the \*very \* different sounds that the different species make. [This page](http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/michigan_cicadas/Michigan/Index.html) contains sound files for a number of species. [/QUOTE] Interesting link, I’ve never heard cicadas before. A couple of years ago I was at home, half sleeping, half listening to music on my computer when a bird made a sound exactly like the sound a hard drive makes when it is about to fail: [phaser](http://www.hitachigst.com/hddt/knowtree.nsf/0/4b1a62a50f405d0d86256756006e340c?). Scared the crap out of me Blimps of Doom style. I would be a nervous wreck if I had to live around Cicadas. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/32 "2007-09-12T04:18:10Z")
Cicadas make WONDERFUL bait for fishing if you do it at the start of cicada season. My dad and I went fishing a couple times during a very big outbreak when I was a kid and it was amazing how many fish we caught. Don’t like to step on 'em though. _Yeccch._ ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/33 "2007-09-12T07:47:35Z")
The noise of cicadas on the trees outside the window is nothing compared to the almighty racket right next to the ear when one of 'em decides to take a flightpath directly into my head. And gets tangled, for a few seconds, in my hair, whirring away. That said, I don’t mind them really. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/34 "2007-09-12T07:49:15Z")
[QUOTE=Ice Wolf] The noise of cicadas on the trees outside the window is nothing compared to the almighty racket right next to the ear when one of 'em decides to take a flightpath directly into my head. And gets tangled, for a few seconds, in my hair, whirring away. That said, I don’t mind them really. [/QUOTE] That said, I really didn’t mind them before I read your post. Now their banishment is under investigation. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/35 "2007-09-12T13:40:03Z")
I love the sound of cicadas. It reminds me of when I was a kid in Texas with a whole summer in front of me and no worries. ---
**Author:** ![Tabula\_Rasa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@Tabula\_Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabula_Rasa)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/36 "2007-09-12T13:50:37Z")
[QUOTE=robby] I love the sound of cicadas. It reminds me of when I was a kid in Texas with a whole summer in front of me and no worries. [/QUOTE] It reminds me of when I was a kid in Texas with the thorn bushes and the goatsheads and the cowshit and the rattlesnakes and the sandstorms and the sulphur smell from the oil refinery and the onion ring 'n hair tonic smell of the old men and the sunburns and the the hot pavement. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/37 "2007-09-12T14:08:28Z")
[QUOTE=Tabula Rasa] It reminds me of when I was a kid in Texas with the thorn bushes and the goatsheads and the cowshit and the rattlesnakes and the sandstorms and the sulphur smell from the oil refinery and the onion ring 'n hair tonic smell of the old men and the sunburns and the the hot pavement. [/QUOTE] I’m sorry you had to grow up in Odessa. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/38 "2007-09-12T15:48:17Z")
[QUOTE=JohnBckWLD] No piss? No vinegar?? No tales of dangerous motorcycling conditions or emergency surgery to remove a buzzing cicada from your pet’s throat??? What a let down. I’ll give it a 1 (for correct spelling) and voice my dissatisfaction by pointing out this thread would’ve worked just as fine had it been bolted onto the end of the [Chinese Butterfly](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=435474) rant from a few days past. [/QUOTE] Well maybe I should have mentioned the sound of the cicadas drove my father to madness. And after he committed suicide…they ate him!!! They killed my father. Now they must die. Is that better? If not I have some piss here if you want it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/39 "2007-09-12T20:22:50Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir] If not I have some piss here if you want it 🙂 [/QUOTE] I just might take you up on your offer if I ever find myself pinned under a pile of concrete rubble without any [cicadas to eat](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4782935) to prevent dehydration. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Tabula\_Rasa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@Tabula\_Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabula_Rasa)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423/40 "2007-09-12T20:57:37Z")
[QUOTE=UncleRojelio] I’m sorry you had to grow up in Odessa. [/QUOTE] Good guess: Big Spring. Odessa was the big city. I got out before I was seven, but cicadas still cause flashbacks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cicadas/418423.md?page=3)