Locusts are here

[Kittyzee]

The locusts have just starting coming out of their shells here and GD#1 loves looking for the empty shells, she calls them "shellies" and making jewelry out of them.  They must not be the same variety that Ky Kim spoke of cuz they don't have the slow whirr and build to a deafening noise like a very few I've heard.  I don't enjoy those.  If the cats get the chance, they love chasing them and eating   them.  

[Ky Kim]

How cute.  I should have sent her some of my shells.  She could have sold them on ebay, you know people will buy anything.

Kim

[Rick40]

 That is cute. They are starting to come out around here also. Only ours have the deafening noise. So much for the peaceful quiet evenings.

   Rick

[Kittyzee]

Her sister who is 4 runs screaming away when we are collecting them.  She's afraid of just about every kind of insect, but this one is like her grandmother  and is looking under rocks and poking sticks into things to see what's there.  She loves to collect snails out of the pond, examine them, watch them try to "escape" and then put them back again in another part of the pond. 

I wonder what the difference is in the locusts?  I have heard a few that start really low and build to a deafening noise.  But ours aren't like that here, they just sing for a few seconds and then are silent.  They fly to another tree and start again, if the cats don't get them first.   

[miguynmkoi]

Your grand daughter is beautiful!  Sharing interests is fun!  Even if they are insects. 

[Oceanbum]

We were camping when they first started coming out here. We were sitting around the campfire and noticed they were coming up out of the ground. We thought the fire was bringing them up. Then we noticed they were climbing up our legs!!! YIKES!!!!!  It was really quite freaky!!!! Our girls was freaked out by it!!!! The next day they were EVERYWHERE!!!!! Hubby and I went back out to the camper a couple of weeks later. There were three times as many and the noise was deafening!!! There were hundreds of shells around the base of the tree next to our camper!!! It was unbelievable!!! There are still a few around. You can hear them but nothing compared to the end of May and all of June!!!

Your Granddaughter's pic is beautiful by the way!!! I'm glad she enjoys collecting them!!! My daughters used to enjoy picking them up and looking at them - until this whole experience!!! Now they just walk away from them!!!!! Or is that RUN AWAY?!!!!! 

[LeeAnne151]

There are different kinds of Cicadas. The ones here just buzz a little bit but the ones in Phoenix buzz very loudly for hours. There are only a few here but thousands there.

[Kittyzee]

Thanks all, she is a darling!     I wish she'd had her mouth open smiling, her 2 front teeth are missing!  I just LOVE that!  But they are in enough that she ate sweet corn the other night and that's what's important 

Oceanbum, I would NOT like that experience at all either.  That sounds like something out of a science fiction pic..   I LOVED Chillicothe, my sister and her husband used to live there and I loved jumping in the car:  an hour and a half later I was there!  All country roads too from here Rt. 56, to Mt. Sterling then 207?  We had good times there! 

[Esther]

Love that picture and the little gal's "jewelery".

[Kittyzee]

Thanks Esther!