Silent Summer

[bluemingidiot]

By this time every other year we would have heard the the wake up cicada alarm.

Maybe the coronavirus wiped them out.

For those who may be coming distraught over the absence of their cheerful greeting, click below.

entomology.tamu.edu/2014/06/24/insect-of-the-month-cicadas/

[Woodpecker]

They started their distinct “noises” here last week. We’ve still have had a load of them in summer for as long as I can remember. Without cidada’s & the cricket sounds at night, it wouldn’t feel like summer.

[bluemingidiot]

Still silent here. It has been very dry and very hot this summer. Maybe the ground is baked so hard they can't dig out?

[Woodpecker]

We once had a neighbor who was deathly afraid of spiders & you name it. One day she came over with her husband & my X and I were talking to them. I didn't see my X do it...but all of a sudden the neighbor lady screamed....the X had put a cicada shell on her shoulder! I thought she was going to have a heart attack and it would have been all X's fault

[susannah]

They've been noisy as all get out up here the last couple days.

[mogal]

Our two new kittens, about 7 mos old now, discovered one last week. They wanted to "hunt" it but every time it buzzed, they nearly jumped out of their skins. So funny.

[bluemingidiot]

Finally started here. Couple of weeks late.

[dustawaits]

Seen but not heard , we don’t have a big amount of them
very often.

[bluemingidiot]

The cicada part of summer was a bust. The start and the peak were pretty much the same thing.

Are speaking of duds, who stole the crickets?

Before the 2oth century concrete monster called I-35 came along in 1962, the main north-south artery through Austin was US Hwy 81. For a few miles that stretch was also US Hwy 290. Along that part were overhanging white light lamps every hundred yards or so.

At the end of August, the first cold front would drive hordes of crickets from surrounding fields and pastures to the bright lights of the city. They were especially attracted to the highway lights and concrete. I suppose if dirt is all that you have ever known concrete is really cool. There would be hundreds and sometimes thousands under and flying around a single lamp.

Nothing was any funner, except maybe hanging around the ninth grade girls at Bartholomew Pool, than to drive in the right lane from Sixth Street to the 290 turn-off. At every lamp, the tires running over the crickets would pop like a string of lady finger fire crackers. I liked it with all the windows rolled down because it was like listening to stereo. It was sort of an End of Summer/Back to School celebration.

When I moved to Llano at the beginning of the Millennium the four all night convenience stores were swarmed with crickets. They were not as enjoyable as the crickets of my youth. Crickets were in the store and on every thing. I think that is when I first started putting a lid on my cup drinks. The grocery store had an employee at the entrance trying to sweep the crickets back out who were trying to sneak in with customers. The crickets would be on me while I was getting gas. As you were driving along you noticed a cricket crawling on some part of your body.

The next day there would be piles up dead crickets up against buildings and along curbs. And it just wasn't dead crickets on the road, many varmints who showed up for the feast got run over as well (I learned that cats will eat crickets). After the sun was out for a few hours the smell became more noticeable.

I have observed one cricket so far this year. I wonder if Covid 19 can be transmitted to crickets, or maybe if bats got it from the crickets?

[Woodpecker]

Lots of crickets still here, a summer sign...

[grannyg]

We listen to them every night, but there were less this year...My neighbor has a dog that became so ill with diarrhea, she took it to the vet..the dog had been eating cicadas as they came up out of the ground to go up the trees...she had to lock him up to keep him from eating them...LOL...I have always loved to find the shells they leave behind...

[solargeek]

We had a ton in central WI. Now gone with the cold. Also seemed there was a 2nd round of tree frogs/tree toads due to the steady heat this summer. I love the country sounds

[bluemingidiot]

It was a very hot summer (2nd hottest recorded). Maybe Texas is getting to hot for native cicadas and crickets.

[laurazone5]

Central Indiana July / August / Sept they were deafening loud!
Now that I am starting to tear out the gardens, their shells are EVERYWHERE.
TONS of tree frogs too.....

Everyone has quieted down since the temp. dropped.

Lightning bugs are pretty scarce around here. Over the last 4 years, I see less and less every year.
I'm guessing when the city sprays for skeeters, they kill the lightning bugs :-(