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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
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    Hot, hot Michigan...
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    3,506

    Gross bugs are coming to my state this year

    Oh lord how I hate these things:

    http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centr...al/8163648.htm

    Gross pictures:
    http://images.google.com/images?q=ci...=Google+Search

    They leave their crunchy shells all over the place too - this is what those look like:

    http://www.acriticaldecision.org/pho...cada-shell.jpg

    Last year it was ladybugs - I can handle those way better than these...

    Thing is with them, is they seem to like to fly at you. Good targets are womens hair, or just plain anyone's face...

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Duluth MN
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    3,863
    Here in Duluth, and all along the north shore of lake superior, we have a problem with Army Worms. They are a 3-5 year cycle species (if I remember correctly)

    They were here last summer, and they stripped certain species of trees bare. They then hang from trees by their silk and the wind catches them to blow them from tree to tree. They were so abundant this summer that some roads became slicked down with squished army worms that it was like driving on ice.

    Now this spring/summer we will be plagued with moths...

  3. #3
    Southeast Pennsylvania... we get them every year too... with the shells all over the street and back yard. The loud waves of clicking noises they make can get really annoying all summer too.
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  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
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    Hot, hot Michigan...
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    <-- preparing to run around in circles screaming like a little girl

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Posts
    7,029
    thedavid I wish you the best of luck I cant handle gross bugs like thoughs. If I lived where you lived I would be doing this to them all.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Posts
    2,677
    At least they are only up for a year.

    Hopefully where I live is not one of the "isolated pockets in Missouri"

    We have bugs that attack twice a year but those are easy to deal with. Treating the windows keeps most of them out. The vacuum works well on those that do. There is nothing inside a house for them to eat (at least according to the "scientists") so I don't understand why that seems to be their number one goal.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    Orlando, FL
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    12,207
    Each to their own I guess....cicadas, or "tzitzikia" in Greek, produce a "song" that I associate with my childhood & the warm, dry summers in Greece. They are abundant in the branches and cavities of olive trees; as kids, we used to catch them and keep them in matchboxes Until we learnt the catching technique, the cicada would fly away leaving behind a string of "urine"

    There is an Aesop's fable about the Ant and the Tzitzikas: the ant worked and sweated all summer piling food for the winter, while the lazy Tzitzikas sang the summer away, poking fun at the hard-working ant. When winter came, Tzitzikas was cold and hungry while the Ant enjoyed a warm home with plenty of food

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    /roof/ledge
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    28,089
    Wasn't that the ant and the grasshopper?

    [edit]
    So it is:
    http://www.bartleby.com/17/1/36.html

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Louisiana
    Posts
    561
    What's so gross about them? They never even come near you, and like timechange said, their songs are a part of summer.
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  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
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    4,028
    Originally posted by thedavid
    <-- preparing to run around in circles screaming like a little girl
    bahahha, nice

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    Orlando, FL
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    12,207
    Originally posted by bear
    Wasn't that the ant and the grasshopper?

    [edit]
    So it is:
    http://www.bartleby.com/17/1/36.html
    Aesop mentions "Tzitzix" - if you read the article in the link above you will see that cicadas are a grasshopper variety; except they have wings.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Hot, hot Michigan...
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    Originally posted by pixetech
    What's so gross about them? They never even come near you, and like timechange said, their songs are a part of summer.
    You missed the part about the 'flying at people'.

    They're big an nasty too. I don't have this aversion to any other bugs than this and centepedes (this type:
    http://www.nps.gov/bibe/images/centipede.jpg )

    Maybe childhood trauma

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    Orlando, FL
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    12,207
    In other Mediterranean countries with similar climate, like Israel, France, Italy, Spain the cicadas are part of the local color and signify that summer has arrived. I miss their sound being here in Florida

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    5,065
    When I was little and lived in hungary, budapest for a year I had this really mean friend. She would constantly catch the biggest fly she could and then she would rip its wings off and watch it hop around helplessly.

    When she got bored of it she would just squash it and find the next fly to mutilate. In hungary they didn't have nintendo so I guess you had to find other ways of entertainment :)

  15. #15
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    Mar 2002
    Location
    Orlando, FL
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    So Hungary was a no-fly zone?

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    Texas
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    Texas has annual cicadas. It is hard to picture a summer night without thier buzz.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
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    Originally posted by timechange.com
    Aesop mentions "Tzitzix" - if you read the article in the link above you will see that cicadas are a grasshopper variety; except they have wings.
    Umm, both have wings.
    http://insected.arizona.edu/ghopperinfo.htm

    And the Cicada is in a different family and genus from the grasshopper, more related to aphids. Regardless of Aesop's thoughts, modern science seems to feel they aren't closely related at all.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    The Woodlands, Tx
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    5,974
    As a kid, we used to catch cicadas and those giant green junebug thingies. We would get thread and tie it around their neck so we could guide where they flew.........it was like having a helicopter on a string...LOL

    I remember tying a string to a bunch, and taped the other end of the strings to a ping pong ball painted bright orange, and let them go. They flew right into a tree and got tangled up.

    Oh, and one fast way to shut them up is firing quail shots into the trees, you are bound to hit most of them

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
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    936
    Yuck!

    Glad we don't have bugs or anything here.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Hot, hot Michigan...
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    Originally posted by webmultitude

    Glad we don't have bugs or anything here.


    It's not so much 'bugs' as it is these bugs. Others don't 'bug' me at all

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
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    3,419
    I had this gun nut of a counselor at camp a couple years back, and at the riflry range, there was a GIANT cicada about a yard down the rifle range. He told everyone to get back, took the rifle, and SHOT that poor thing in half. Afterwords, it wouldn't stop making that clicky sound, and it was incredibly loud, louder than normal, so of course, he shot it again. Still, it didn't stop that horrible noise until he just stepped on it. Just a cicada story.

    I in no way support this guy's actions.
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  22. #22
    Join Date
    Dec 2000
    Location
    The Woodlands, Tx
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    Well, I dont like the centi/milli pedes. I especially dont like those big ugle bees (wasps?) that are the size of hummingbirds. And I seriously dont like the f&ckbugs that hit here in Houston all the time. Last year it was horrible. Black cloud swarms of them, they get in your face and hair, their acids kill vehicle paint, and you have to practically use an ice scraper to clean them off your windshields. Disgusting bugs..... I prefer the mosquitoes that these things were imported to combat. Talk about the solution being worse than the problem. There arent any chemicals (man made or natural) that really work against them, and they have no natural enemies as birds and such wont eat them..

  23. #23
    We have cicadas every year in Dallas. I love listening to them, and I caught them as a kid just like timechange.

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Hot, hot Michigan...
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    Originally posted by Xshare

    I in no way support this guy's actions.
    I do.

    Sounds like a good idea, but I think I may have problems shooting within city limits. That and the rifle doesn't even have a scope or anything, so it's hard to hit a target that small...

    Maybe I need to get one.

    Then I could make an online pictoral at the domain DieCicadaDie.com... have people donate cash for ammo and such... Maybe become rich beyond all imaginations, and form an online group of cicada hunters. Movies could be made about it, starring me of course, and maybe Gillian Anderson as my wife. The drama... just imagine it.

    I'm so there.

    Thanks for the idea.

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    tampa, fl
    Posts
    326
    A few years ago here in Florida we had mole crickets which are nasty little buggers too. I hate those things... when I would be skateboarding, jump right in your face NASTY!! They messed up our lawn pretty bad too.

    http://www.cropsci.ncsu.edu/turffile...t/crickets.htm

    These cicadas look a lot nastier though. I say you need ammo, lot's of ammo. Or genetically modify a clan of killer spiders that feed off them. Actually that wouldn't be too good because when the cicadas are wiped out you'll have a clan of angry killer spiders on your hands. Scratch that.

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