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Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

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Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

Old 01-20-2004, 04:13 PM
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PigMan Buggerus
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Default Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

OK it was 17 years ago that they swarmed, I wasn't flying then, any special precautions, or should I just forget about flying in late May through June. I know they are attracted to the sound 2-cycle engines make. Does that translate into RC motors as well? I'd like to hear from some people that went through it the last time if at all possible. At the time I was driving a HomeCity Ice truck, and the little suckers loved the sound that the cooling unit made. They swarmed my truck like nobody's business. Everyone in Cincinnati get your tennis rackets ready, it's that time once again.
Old 01-20-2004, 11:18 PM
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Bruno Stachel
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

I've been wondering about this too. The last time the cicadas came, part of a large tree blew down in my dad's backyard after a storm. We cleaned out limb after limb covered with them. The chainsaw seemed to bring more of them in! I suppose it will be interesting with the 2 and 4 strokes serenading them.
Old 01-20-2004, 11:33 PM
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GrnBrt
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

Ok showing ignorance here but what and the Sam hell are you talking about?[]
Old 01-21-2004, 12:19 AM
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Mike Bogh
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

Big arsed bug that makes a loooong loud whine type noise...by big I mean up to 3 damn inches in lenth, 3/4 of an inch thick, almost 1 inch wide...hence the tennis rackett approach....Houston's lousy with them...
Old 01-21-2004, 01:18 AM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

Whoa, sounds like the mosquitos we had in 'Nam, damn B-52's and big enough to take you home to the family!!!! One night when I came off guard and laid down on my cot I took a deep breath in through my nose and one flew right on up into my sinus's and buzzed like crazy, darn near whizzed in my pants and snorted like a bull in heat trying to get it out and the guy in the cot next to mine grabbed his 16 thinking a had gone nutso!!!![X(] will never forget that one and you can keep those flying bombers right where they are at thank you very much!
Old 01-21-2004, 07:24 AM
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Bruno Stachel
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

They have a sharp hooklike spine protruding out of their rear section, which they use to rip open tree bark (mostly on small branches). In the slits they make, they lay eggs that fall to the ground after the branches die and break off. They're mother nature's pruners. It's a good time to be a bird around here. You should see all of the robins, barely able to fly, after feasting on them. I'm hoping that our flying field, being surrounded mostly by farm fields, will at least be spared having a large swarm. If memory serves, I think they are concentrated more heavily around trees. When driving, you can drive through a cloud of them, and it's like driving through a hail storm. But these hail stones leave big streaks on the windshield. Bad time to not have air conditioning in your car too!
Old 01-21-2004, 07:29 AM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

<<...damn B-52s...>>

I hear you. I had a couple of them land on my chest one night, flip over my dog tags, and one said to the other, "This guy is A positive. We want O negative tonight."

What the hell were you doing pulling guard? Didn't you guys have Nungs and Yards for that?

.
Old 01-21-2004, 08:34 AM
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PigMan Buggerus
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

When I was drinving the ice truck, I had to roll up the windows in the sweltering heat because they would fly into the cab (No AC in truck). That wasn't a total solution though, they started coming out of the vents in the dash. I almost wrecked. They truly are terrible. But it was kind of funny if you had air conditioning to drive around downtown and watch all the people waiting at the bus stops doing the cicada dance. The get in your hair, hey hang on your clothes, mowing the lawn or using a weed wacker is almost out of the question, that's why I don't think I will be able to fly come this spring. I think they are going to swarm the sound of a nitro engine.
Here's a good article on what kind of damage they do:
http://www.cincypost.com/2003/08/30/...ide083003.html

Here are a few pics:

You can see in the one photo that their eyes aren't always red.
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Old 01-21-2004, 12:38 PM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

What the hell were you doing pulling guard? Didn't you guys have Nungs and Yards for that?
when we were at a FOB we didn't have them, only at the base camps and also would get called to a leg base when they were having trouble with night snipers as I had a telescopic star scope and would sit in a tower watching for them to make a move and then eliminate them. Fun times for sure until one night they spotted me and really did a number on the tower.
Old 01-21-2004, 02:31 PM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

No Nungs at an FOB???

You must have been down in II Corps.

You had a magnifying add-on for a AN-PVS2? Or were you using IR? I ask because those first-generation AN-PVS2's were clumsy POS's that NEVER saw the field with us. They were okay for bunker duty, if you had a clear night. Otherwise...[:'(]

<<..get called to a leg base...>>

That must have been fun. Senior leg officers really didn't like us. They must have hated you guys.

.
Old 01-21-2004, 02:39 PM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

A few didn't have Nungs and those were always the fun ones, ya right. Yes i used an add on and your right, what garbage but in a pinch was all right. I always felt it was strange as I went from one corp to another the situations changed, kind of like going to a different county![X(] Oh ya the senior leg officers hated us because they couldn't tell us what to do and one decided to push the issue and I just got back on the slick and said adios whatever if you get my drift. do that a few times they take the hint and keep their pie hole shut, we go in take care of the situation and tell them the bill is in the mail and we were out of there, didn't like being at a leg base, to much dumb nonsense!
Old 01-21-2004, 03:38 PM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

O.K correct me if this is wrong bug-ologists;

Aren't cicadas around every year (generally green'brown), it is just that a different variety (black & orange) takes 17 years to emerge?
Old 01-21-2004, 05:05 PM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

Actually, most of the ones that are around every year are Locusts, which are more related to Grasshoppers. There are other Cicadas, but this is a special version that is mostly localized to Southwestern OH. According to the paper, we should see somewhere around 5 billion of these suckers from the middle of May til the end of June. They are big noisy and bothersome. They are attracted to weed whacker engines, so I am thinking that model airplane engines are going to sound pretty good to them as well. Not to mention trying to fly while these things are landing on you, because they do tend to do that. They get to be so thick sometimes that you can actually see clouds of them. Thank God they only come once every 17 years, except for the few stragglers that will come out next year. The birds do have a field day. The last time they came around, I remember seeing robins that were so fat that they could hardly fly.
Old 01-21-2004, 07:56 PM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

ORIGINAL: PigMan Buggerus

Actually, most of the ones that are around every year are Locusts, which are more related to Grasshoppers.
Actually the Cicada's he's talking about are not related to locusts at all. They are merely an annual version of the 17 year Cicada. They are quite a bit larger and green in color but they don't appear in the large numbers like the 17 year variety. We have them every summer here in Arkansas. I am from Cincinnati and most of my family still lives there. I remember the last outbreak up there and they are literally everywhere. It's funny for about a day or two. You're right about the birds.They just walk around burping with their belly's hanging out.
Old 01-21-2004, 09:12 PM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

My props are normally covered with spots of bug guts, geez what a mess it's gonna be this summer. Has it been 17 yrs already?
Old 01-21-2004, 11:57 PM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

Yup, big arsed green one were the ones I was referring to..
Old 01-22-2004, 12:13 AM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

those bugs sound like a pain! glad we dont have anything like that in good ol' mass! Just a few stray seagulls that quickly get out of our flying area, especially when they find big ol' noisy things doing loops around them!! oh yeah, i cant wait for the warm weather!

sean
Old 01-22-2004, 08:56 AM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

ORIGINAL: Robotech

ORIGINAL: PigMan Buggerus

Actually, most of the ones that are around every year are Locusts, which are more related to Grasshoppers.
Actually the Cicada's he's talking about are not related to locusts at all. They are merely an annual version of the 17 year Cicada. They are quite a bit larger and green in color but they don't appear in the large numbers like the 17 year variety. We have them every summer here in Arkansas. I am from Cincinnati and most of my family still lives there. I remember the last outbreak up there and they are literally everywhere. It's funny for about a day or two. You're right about the birds.They just walk around burping with their belly's hanging out.

Thanks for the confirmation. We used to have the little black and orange ones on the 17 year cycle when I lived in Illinois, and also Nebraska...and Missouri. I don't think they are just an Ohio thing. Of course, from the sound of your bug clouds, you may have the most!

I say, get a combat plane, cover the carb, and GO GET 'EM!!!!
Old 01-22-2004, 09:06 AM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

Apparently they can be used as weapons as well. This is from the 1987 swarm:
"Two Cincinnati men armed with a cicada are suspected of stealing $25 from a restaurant's cash register after using the winged insect to briefly scare
away the cashier, police say. The two men walked into the Grand Slam
Restaurant brandishing a cicada. They thrust the bug at cashier Marquisa
Kellogg, 22, who then fled from her post at the cash register, police said.
Later, after Ms. Kellogg had recovered and returned to the register, she found that it was missing $25"
Old 01-22-2004, 09:15 AM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

Sounds like it might be time to stock up on paper towels and windex
Old 06-09-2004, 10:46 PM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

So, anyone having any trouble with the Cicadas at the field? No problem at ours. They seem to collect mainly in and near trees. Is it the same with others? Any midair stories involving Cicadas? I thought someone might have used one as pilot by now.

I've seen some amusing things though. My 4 yr old daughter has been collecting their shells. She has 3 coffee cans full of them, and insists on bringing them in the house.

My black Lab has been laying around like uncle Joe at Thanksgiving. He's been munching on so many Cicadas[:'(], he's really porked out! Luckily he hasn't had any reaction to them. We've been keeping him mostly indoors now, until this passes.

Today, I was eating lunch at my favorite chilli parlor. I could see a guy using a gas weed trimmer across the street, in front of the Taco Bell. You should have seen the cicadas swarming toward him! He was constantly stopping his work to pull them off his face and shirt. He got so frustrated, he started slamming them on the sidewalk. After he finally finished with the trimmer, he got the gas leaf blower out. It's the kind that you wear like a back pack. He fired that blower up, and the cicadas really went for him! I mean it was a cloud of bugs. I was laughing my head off, watching him dance, duck and weave! It got to the point where he quit blowing the grass and started trying to intercept the bugs with the blower. What a hoot!
Old 06-10-2004, 07:18 AM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

Yeah, they aren't too bad at our field either. We have some trees around, but they mainly stick to them. i was very surprised that they weren't attracted to the engines. Yeah just driving around Clifton(They are horrible there) and watching the people do the Cicada Dance at the bus stops is really funny. Some people carry badmitton(sp?) rackets with them to fend off the bugs. I haven't seen nor heard of anyone midaring a Cicada yet. They really haven't been a problem.
Old 06-10-2004, 09:18 AM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

This will be my first experience. And after 7 years in the midwest, these things drive me nuts listening to them at the field.
My neighbor calls them popcorn bugs, and the vet has warned me to keep plenty of laxitives around since our Labrador loves to eat them like popcorn. They make him constipated.
Old 06-10-2004, 09:23 AM
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Default RE: Cicada Time Again in Cincinnati

Wow, last time around, my mom's doberman actually climbed the trees in her yard to eat them, it caused him to have violent bowl movements(usually in the middle of the night in my mom's bedroom). ;-)

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