Register FAQ Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read
Navigation
Front Page
Forum
Gallery
Wiki

Ads by Google


Go Back   Hamster Central > Hamster Central Forum Topics > Miscellaneous Chat

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-01-2016, 05:59 PM   #1
Nancy's Hamsters
ST's Hamstery
 
Nancy's Hamsters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Mid Ohio USA
Posts: 2,574
Default Oh my the 17 year invasion is in full swing in Ohio

I have never been in an area to hear nor see these things. Big, Black with bright red eyes, and in my area transparent wings which have golden yellow all around the wing veins.

Yes it is the 17 year Cicadas. 1 inch or more long, and make the loudest singing sound I have ever heard. They are making the lovely Blue Jay birds excited as normally you'd only see a single pair of Jays as they are VERY territorial, but this morning we had around 10 Blue Jays in the Yard all gorging on newly molted Cicadas.

Every place I look I see the empty skin shells of the Nymphs which came to the surf to complete their final life cycle. They have no mouths so can't bite, and they do drink fluids from trees like Maple trees and young friut trees. They can cling on like super glue to anything their legs hold. Last night I had the honors of watching a Cicada do it's final molt on my fence at the bottom of my deck entrance ramp. It was amazing to see, and watch the new creature emerge. It was like watching a Butterfly emerge from it's cocoon.
This is what they look like just emerging from their 17 year long underground life


They climb up anything they can climb and seem to want to be as high up as is possible before beginning their last and final molt of their life. Once they find a spot they feel is safe from all kinds of predators they attach their big strong legs and nothing will knock them down even a full force wind of a Thunder Storm. Soon their skin splits at the head area and the new creature begins to come forth.


Here the Cicada's head has already come out of the skin casing


In about 30 minutes the Cicada has begun shaking and trembling which is how it extracts the little wing nubs.


Then it does the oddest thing. It actually lets go of the skin molt and hangs backwards by two very thin strings of material inside the skin casing. Every single one that I have watched emerge does this position, and remains in this position for over and hour.


I missed out on my little friend on the deck fence doing this backwards pose, and missed this stage which is the Cicada slowly pumping blood through the wings to enlarge them and dry them out. Here's one from the night before so you can see.


1 hour from seeing my little friend preparing to lay upsidedown this is what SHE now looked like.


Her wings are now fully expanded and she is just waiting for them to finish drying to enable her to fold them down and back in proper Cicada wing position. 1 hour later she now can do that and is become the classic look of an adult Cicada except her body is still not finished.


Yet 1 more hour later and you can see her body turning darker and hardening completely.


That was the last time I would see her on the fence as and hour later she had begun her last duty in life and that is to take flight and seek a mate and breed and then lay her eggs. She lays her eggs in a slit in a young branch of mostly Maple trees. This doesn't do much harm to the tree except for any leaves below the slit which wilt and die leaving what scientist and tree experts call Flags. The more flags found the bigger the emergence was, and the healthier the Brood of Cicadas are. We are witnessing the Brood V and XXII this year. Interesting tidbit about these insects they are territorial and only emerge in certain locations every 17 years. Some broods have emerged since the 1800s when they were first seen.

Here is what my little friend would have looked like right before she took flight.


And if she is successful in mating this will be her right before slitting the young branch to deposit her many eggs into the limb.


Though many animals eat Cicadas they do absorb high levels of Mercury from their underground days and if too many are consumed it can cause Mercury poisoning so won't see if the Hamsters would like a tasty high protein treat of Cicada.

Though I did learn of one beautiful animal who was out in the woods enjoying the easy free meal of thousands of Newly emerged Cicadas. This animals screams are very very spooky and though I have heard them in the past it always sent chills up my spine hearing them in the dead of the night.

It is the territorial scream of a red Fox. If you dare give a listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk1mAd77Hr4

The Video is no where near as creepy sounding as it is in real life.
__________________
Nancy,and The ST's Hamsters
Nancy's Hamsters is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-01-2016, 11:46 PM   #2
souffle
Moderator
 
souffle's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Yorkshire, UK but my heart lies in Scotland!
Posts: 28,184
Default Re: Oh my the 17 year invasion is in full swing in Ohio

oh gosh that is quite amazing Nancy.! I'd be staying indoor though. They are not as pretty as hamsters are they!
souffle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-02-2016, 12:10 AM   #3
BluerayDarkes
PM Fluffy for custom title
 
BluerayDarkes's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 1,275
Send a message via Yahoo to BluerayDarkes Send a message via Skype™ to BluerayDarkes
Default Re: Oh my the 17 year invasion is in full swing in Ohio

That is an interesting time frame of photos, I learned about the cicada
__________________
Mum to James the shiny
~~~~~~~~~~~
R.I.P to all my beautiful babies, play well at the bridge I miss you all <3
BluerayDarkes is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-02-2016, 02:15 AM   #4
SKB_Hamsters
PM Fluffy for custom title
 
SKB_Hamsters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: UK
Posts: 3,186
Default Re: Oh my the 17 year invasion is in full swing in Ohio

This was so interesting and fascinating seeing the cicada life cycle from nymph to adult. They look fairly big.
__________________
Popcorn Syrian

Owning Hamsters since Nov 2007
SKB_Hamsters is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-02-2016, 02:41 AM   #5
freyashamsters
PM Fluffy for custom title
 
freyashamsters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: South-East England
Posts: 1,054
Default Re: Oh my the 17 year invasion is in full swing in Ohio

They look really interesting and they were awesome photos Nancy - can't say I prefer them to hamsters though!
__________________
Minion to Daisy, Lily, Harry and Peanut <3
Gone but never forgotten
Willow - 18:27 18th November 2016
freyashamsters is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-02-2016, 07:04 AM   #6
Nancy's Hamsters
ST's Hamstery
 
Nancy's Hamsters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Mid Ohio USA
Posts: 2,574
Default Re: Oh my the 17 year invasion is in full swing in Ohio

Quote:
Originally Posted by souffle View Post
oh gosh that is quite amazing Nancy.! I'd be staying indoor though. They are not as pretty as hamsters are they!
The best thing is once fully winged they fly to the tree tops and you won't see any on ground level until it is about to die, and even then it seldom last as every animal will eat them once down on the ground. Even jumping spiders which are not even a forth their size. However it is said don't run a mower or any kind of lawn equipment unless you want a swarm of eligible ladies to fly on you. The vibration of the mower and sound confuses the females into thinking you and the mower are a big male waiting to court.
However I'm not to sure on this fact cause many of my neighbors have been out mowing and I haven't seen any swatting at bugs while doing the lawn LOL

Quote:
Originally Posted by SKB_Hamsters View Post
This was so interesting and fascinating seeing the cicada life cycle from nymph to adult. They look fairly big.
They average about 1-2 inches depending on sex. Here's a young adult male who fell off it's skin shell a wee bit to soon that I helped to a shaded maple tree so it could continue to dry and be able to fly and mate.

This was him starting to darken up in his body. Note he has one wing slightly damaged from not drying his wings properly. He was able to fly but chances are not in his favor of successfully mating as he will need to fly to the tallest tree top to get the females attention above other more suitable males.


Quote:
Originally Posted by freyashamsters View Post
They look really interesting and they were awesome photos Nancy - can't say I prefer them to hamsters though!
They are not anywhere near as adorable as a Hamster However they are fascinating to observe, and we won't see this brood until 2033 so I am thankful to God I got to observe and enjoy these insects this year.

There is a different Cicada that emerges every year but they are not as open on their emergence, and they all emerge alone so the only way you know they have come is by their song in the trees which only occurs when they are about to mate. These Cicadas are twice the size of the Periodical Cicadas and are all black with blue eyes.
__________________
Nancy,and The ST's Hamsters
Nancy's Hamsters is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-02-2016, 07:41 AM   #7
Erin.R
Senior Hamster
 
Erin.R's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: small town Ohio
Posts: 614
Default Re: Oh my the 17 year invasion is in full swing in Ohio

Isn't nature just amazing. I love spring and all the new creatures that emerge. I had a funny thing happen when I came home from work Tuesday night. I went to open the door and almost screamed when I felt a odd texture on the button, I'm glad I barely touched it as I would hate to squish the cute little guy. Check out the picture
Attached Images
File Type: jpg IMG_1905.jpg (97.5 KB, 12 views)
Erin.R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-02-2016, 02:27 PM   #8
Nancy's Hamsters
ST's Hamstery
 
Nancy's Hamsters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Mid Ohio USA
Posts: 2,574
Default Re: Oh my the 17 year invasion is in full swing in Ohio

aww a green tree frog, isn't it cute. So glad you didn't harm it by accident. LOL bet he/she was puzzled at the weird textured tree it was on.
__________________
Nancy,and The ST's Hamsters
Nancy's Hamsters is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
cicada, cicadas, life, skin, hour, trees, emerge, year, friend, final, territorial, night, high, fence, eggs, young, position, molt, area, wings, wing, creature, jays, flight, underground

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO v2.0.43 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
Copyright © 2003-2022, Hobby Solutions
All times are GMT -7. The time now is 01:19 AM.