Cicada Invasion - Nasty Summer for East Coast

A cicada apocalypse is near and Shadowhunters will show up too late in August to slay dark creatures. I have not yet lost my mind due to household work overload, I am speaking the truth. Millions of nasty bugs are scheduled to invade the U.S. East Coast and they are expected to outnumber the population by a ratio of 6:1. Nasty!

I seriously do not think I am ready for the love song of the cicadas. Not me, no madam! The video blogs that some fond nature and bug friendly folks have recorded, play a very high frequency noise in the name of the cicada song. The collective noise made by millions of bugs is similar to that of a lawn mower, or an engine buzz, or maybe even high enough as the fan of a foker aircraft. That is going to go on for a long time before the cicadas begin to die off. 

Yes, they are going to hatch out of an embryo stage, grow into an adult, sing for their females, mate, reproduce, and die! The young ones will then migrate underground where they will hide for another 17 years. 

I have seen some pretty nasty creepy crawlies in Karachi. I was very proud of our national roaches which are a marvelous 2 inch when fully grown, and they are capable of flight as well. They could give fragile ones like me a massive cardiac arrest. The domestic lizards are more fierce in attitude than the Godzilla. But the cicadas, I fell, would deflate my pride a whole lot.

They are described to be roughly 2 inch when fully grown. The body looks like a cross between a grasshopper, a roach, and a beatle. To top the villainous look off, they have 5 compound eyes. Two of these eyes are bright red. I do not like being stared at. And, unless it's a Shadowhunter I do not think I'd like to stare back into those eyes.

I'm hearing tales of previous cicada invasions. People in Maryland are telling the news channels that cicadas are "annoying but harmless". Just because they are not poisonous and do not bite does not alleviate the emotional harm they are going to cause to fragile folks like myself. I, for one, would find myself battling a fear tantrum - talk about blood pressure!

They are expected to hit people, sit on them, feed on tree barks, die and rot with a foul smell. The summer here in Maryland is not going to be pretty. Those photos on Google are horrendous and the news pieces are scary. 

The latest terrorizing news piece, freshly posted:

"A vast swath of the east coast is bracing for the arrival of billions of large, winged insects known as cicadas that will begin emerging after 17 years of living underground.

Areas between the states of Georgia and Connecticut will experience massive swarms of the one-inch-long insects, all members of what is known as “Brood II,” one of seven species of the insect whose larvae (or nymphs) have spent nearly two decades feeding on roots.

The peak of their arrival should come towards the end of May, at which point the red-eyed, noisy bugs will be well on their way to outnumbering the number of people living in the region from North Carolina to Connecticut by 600-to-1.

The insects, though harmless, are considered a nuisance both for their size and sheer numbers, not to mention the noise pollution that has been measured at up to 94 decibels, loud enough to drown out the sound of overhead planes according to the Associated Press."

Source: East coast of US braces for billions-strong cicada swarm