Year of the Cicadas

We interupt this Natalie picture palooza to bring you a little entomology lesson....this is the year of the cicadas here in Asheville and it's been really interesting learning about these noisy little bugs.

They're pretty amazing insects...they're totally harmless, just a little creepy, and they create a hum in the forests that is right out of a horror movie. It's all you hear in our neighborhood these days....a loud, constant, collective chirping.

They have a pretty fascinating life. They lay their eggs in the bark of trees and when the eggs hatch they drop to the ground where they can stay hidden anywhere from 2 to 17 years! They finally emerge to the surface, shed their skin on a tree trunk or plant and at that point are a full fledged adult...finally. The empty skins stay where they leave them and consequently many trees in our neighborhood are covered with these skeleton shells.

Natalie and I went on a hunt for a few this morning to snap some photos but only got a few focused images....so I stole most of these images from wikipedia. Okay...bug babble is over...we'll be back to Natalie pics tomorrow!

Before it sheds it's shell.

Newly out of it's shell.

An adult cicada.

This was a rare sighting where there were only 3 on a telephone pole. There are usually about 100 per tree trunk.