Cicadas

[UffDa]

It's been cicada time here for about a month. They are kind of hard to see in the foliage of the aspens that they seem to prefer and when you get close, they stop making their noise. I was spraying some ants this afternoon and happened to look up into one of our trees and spotted this one. While I went to get my camera, another showed up. I have no idea if they are two males or a male and female. There was no physical contact, but after a few minutes, the upper one left.

 

[Haze]

I find these giant orange and black ones all the time at the begining of the summer (they have pretty much
finished off now) They can give you quite a start when they fly off screaming when your doing the garden

These little greenish ones are a bit less common in the garden but they make a much cooler sound than the big ones do.

 

[mwerner]

Amazing critters, really. They spend anywhere from one to as long as 17 years underground as burrowers, then emerge to spend one brief Summer mating before dropping dead.
We had one of the big 17-year hatches here a couple of years ago, and in some areas the singing was quite deafening...

 

[Planterz]

Not hearing those little buggers is something I definitely don't miss living down here.

 

[UffDa]

I find these giant orange and black ones all the time at the begining of the summer (they have pretty much
finished off now) They can give you quite a start when they fly off screaming when your doing the garden

That's not screaming you hear. They are playing tiny bagpipes.

 

[Haze]

That's not screaming you hear. They are playing tiny bagpipes.

You could be right, the ones in Scotland tend to have a tartan pattern on them though.
Those pics are of ones from Taiwan

 

[jonnyt16]

Disgusting. Those things would feel the business end of my TOPS Dawn Warrior the second after I spotted them, end of story.

 

[C.S. Graves]

Saw many when visiting relatives in Toronto when I was younger. Get a swarm of 'em and the noise is almost industrial in amplitude and timbre. Have a single one fly by you and it sounds like a small hovercraft.

 

[UffDa]

You could be right, the ones in Scotland tend to have a tartan pattern on them though.
Those pics are of ones from Taiwan

Actually, it's made by Duncan Soutar in St. Andrews. Is that in Taiwan?