Are Cicadas Sick?

The purpose of this blog is for a sick Shabbat table. Please print, share, forward, etc.

Here's another angle on the theme of unity (see Is G-d G--d and How to Be Mivatayr).

A common enemy unifies. So does a common experience.

Here in the East, everyone is sharing the experience of cicadas (sick-ay-daz), back in town after 17 years underground.

Are they a common enemy?

They are amazing creatures. After 17 years living on sap from tree roots, billions of them burrow out and climb up trees (some can't find a tree so they choose a tall blade of grass) where they use gravity to assist shedding their exoskeleton. You can see them doing this in real time - just walk up to a tree and you'll probably find one or more cicadas (or dozens) in some stage of mulching. 

Then they have to pump out their wings with hemorphin.

Then they have to learn to fly, which they practice on the ground. The problem with this stage is that many of them become road-kill and sidewalk-kill.

After a few days of flight practice, the males will fly up to a tree and select the best branch for egg-laying. These guys will then start chirping for the ladies to come and lay their eggs.

But because there are so many of them (estimated 1.5 million per acre), the chirping is getting louder and louder, each one chirping at around 100dB. Here is a recording I made yesterday in front of our house.

(Here in my office, where I rarely hear thunderstorms, I can now hear them.)

The best branch for egg-laying is a small, soft one, because she's going to saw into it and lay her eggs in there.

The larvae need to get to the ground, and often bring that branch with them. They burrow down and we'll see them in 17 years....

• The process naturally prunes trees, resulting in more flowers and fruit.
• They feed birds, bears, raccoons, reptiles and amphibians; as well as fish (bass, trout, carp, catfish, bluegill, walleye and muskie) contributing to a huge boom in these populations. Fly-fishing heaven!
• They also fertilize the ground, benefitting the trees and surrounding plants and their holes aerate your yard.

Question for your table - While they are like grasshoppers in our eyes, do you think they are like grasshoppers compared to us in their eyes?
 

​Shabbat Shalom

PS for a great book on amazing insects, click the image above.

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