Ducati Monster Forum

If you live in any of the southern states of the US and find yourself asking that question after a big bug explodes on your helmet visor, it's probably one of these harmless dudes:

(http://i.huffpost.com/gen/275933/thumbs/r-CICADAS-US-SOUTH-2011-large570.jpg)


After 13 years underground, they're baaaaaaack!!



Ride carefully in the swarms!!!

wtf is it?

Cicada

They are Cicadas.

Every 13 years they emerge from underground to mate and die. When they emerge and go through their life process, they leaving behind mass amounts of yellowish shells:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Cicada_molting_animated-2.gif/170px-Cicada_molting_animated-2.gif)

gross if you ask me.

I was riding a Moped one time YEARS ago, 15mph... WHACK in the throat... not a good feeling

With average sizes ranging from 1in to 3inches, yeah, that would sting a little!!

Really kind of a cool critter in sort of a prehistoric alien kind of way! [thumbsup] They are like the infamous "B-29 bugs" from the movie On Any Sunday! [laugh] I had a dog named Daisy years ago and I always referred to her as a heffa-lump and kept her around for comic relief. Sweet as the day is long but goofy as shit. That dog lived for cicadas! If there was one on the ground and buzzed it was DRT... dead right there! If she could stretch or leap high enough off the ground she would snatch them off tree trunks. Or she would patiently wait for them to crawl down and get in her range. She ate them like Snickers bars!! Cracked me up. My other dog Bowzer would give me this look that I translated as "Gross! Look at what this goofball is doing. This is as bad as her eating cat turds out of the litter box! Why on God's green earth do you make me live with her in the backyard?" [laugh] [laugh]

Do all the cicadas of the world coordinate the years they stay underground ?  [laugh] [laugh]

They are around here every year  ;D

People often incorrectly call them locusts. Locusts are a specific kind of grasshoppers. I had a 2 inch grasshopper explode on my shoulder on one rural ride and I couldn't imagine a cicada in the face. Yet another reason to ATGATT.

actually there are 17 and 13 year Cicadas with several 'families' or broods that cary from region to region, sometimes overlapping. so in some areas it could appear they come more often when in fact that specific brood is either coming 13 or 17 year intervals.

Growing up in NW Florida, we had cicadas every year.  I never noticed one year seeing more than another.  Of course, I wasn't really paying attention to bugs :)

Those suckers are loud though, thats for sure!

That's the only thing I remember about Prescott, AZ..hearing the cicadas buzzing the entire time.


Here's a bug for ya.  Posted up on TOB a few years back.  This sucker hit the telephone pole at the end of my driveway.  Knocked itself out briefly and then came after me.  It's a Palo Verde bug aka Palo Verde Beetle.

http://phoenix.about.com/od/deasertcreatures/ss/paloverdebeetle.htm (http://phoenix.about.com/od/deasertcreatures/ss/paloverdebeetle.htm)

(http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss158/izaac10_album/bug1.jpg)



  

This why I like coming here.  Brushing up on entomology!  Most folks just think of the critters hitting their helmets a bugs.  The entomologist rider wants to know what they are.  Riding a moto is a way to sample the insect world!

Same in pa. Those things are cool.

This is the second internet forum I belong to where someone posted about the cicada emerging; on the other one they were all excited about the event.  I know they spend many years underground, depending on which sub-species; but here in Texas we have them every summer.  I find it unusual that in some areas they apparently coordinate and all emerge in the same year.

What's the last thing to go through cicadas mind when it hits your visor at speed?


It's asshole.

Old joke I know, but I love it still. :)

They don't.  Their life cycle started all those years ago.

There's a new crop in the ground every year.

From wikipedia:

"After mating, the female cuts slits into the bark of a twig, and into these she deposits her eggs. She may do so repeatedly, until she has laid several hundred eggs. When the eggs hatch, the newborn nymphs drop to the ground, where they burrow. Most cicadas go through a life cycle that lasts from two to five years. Some species have much longer life cycles, such as the North American genus, Magicicada, which has a number of distinct "broods" that go through either a 17-year or, in some parts of the world , a 13-year life cycle. These long life cycles perhaps developed as a response to predators such as the cicada killer wasp and praying mantis.[14][15][16] A predator with a shorter life cycle of at least 2 years could not reliably prey upon the cicadas.[17]

Cicadas live underground as nymphs for most of their lives, at depths ranging from about 30 cm (1 ft) down to 2.5 m (about 8½ ft). The nymphs feed on root juice and have strong front legs for digging.

In the final nymphal instar, they construct an exit tunnel to the surface and emerge. They then molt (shed their skins), on a nearby plant for the last time and emerge as adults. The abandoned skins remain, still clinging to the bark of trees."

That last part always creeped me out as a kid. I was never into bugs as a kid.

I used to collect the shells.

;D

I love Cicadas.  Harmless and funny and even friendly. 

Tie a thread around one of their legs and they will fly around in a circle.

[laugh]

wrong, but funny.

Oh that's mean!!

Yes, I have gotten so much hate mail from Cicadas over this. 

www.cicadasaginstducatiz.com (http://)

You'd better watch your beers in the future...

(http://thumbnails.truveo.com/0005/4E/A2/4EA2210D8E3A9C4E08B5E9.jpg)

Growing up we had the 13 year cicadas & I had this weird fascination with the shells too.  Mostly trying to pry them off trees, I didn't want to keep them.  And looking for the rare albino cicadas.

We have the 17-year cicadas in Maryland.  Yeah... there are cicadas every year there, but the 17-year brood is really something special.  They're absolutely everywhere.  The last batch was in 2004.  Swarm so big they almost block out the sun.  I absolutely hate bugs.  The 1987 brood just about killed my lawn mowing venture for that summer. 

I've seen their exoskeletons clinging to my house since moving to Texas.  If you could make one about a thousand times bigger you'd have a frightening movie monster.   

Ryan, I was living in Ohio back in 87 and remember that!! They were EVERYWHERE!! In fact, I think that's the one memory of them that has always stuck with me!!!

Me too.  I had a little tub full of them.  The tips of the legs on the shells were actually pretty sharp and I used to put them in random places on my sister's clothing  [evil]  What else are little sisters good for?

We had the 17 year swarm in Central Illinois when I was in high school and at one point the neighbor kids would go outside with badminton racquets, nudge the bushes, and go apeshit on all the fleeing cicadas.  Normally I wouldn't agree to such butchery, but I don't think there was gonna be a shortage that year.....

We get them down here in Australia too. It scares the crap out of you when they hit your helmet because it sounds like someone is shooting at you. They hurt if you are wearing a mesh/textile jacket that I wear during the summer here. Its like having a rock pelted at you.

Here in SC there is no helmet law. Harley riders rarely wear helmets. I always wonder what kind of imprint those suckers leave when they hit smack between the eyes.

That's hilarious!!  [laugh]

I have always wondered the exact same thing. Like others have said when one hits you at highway+ speed it feels like a rock. Imagine that bug hitting you in the eye or cheek at that speed. It could put your eye out or at least cause serious injury. Damn sure would screw up your concentration which would have a negative effect on your riding ability/skills. ;D I am always amazed at riders buzzing down the highway not even wearing sunglasses. [bang] One look at my bug covered faceshield makes me wonder how they do it. :P I guess it's just part of the Harley/cruiser cool factor. [laugh]

Many years ago I was cruising along at about 70 MPH and flipped my visor up to adjust my glasses.

POW POW. Two cicadas right between my eyes. I pulled over to make sure I didn't have a hole in my forehead and to otherwise clean up.

All I can say is it looked like a lobster suicide bomber had gone off in my face.

And I'm still questioning the timing: Two hitting me at exactly the time and place I was most vulnerable? I smell a conspiracy....

ooo I'm agreeing with that... who'd you piss off that week?

they were having sex..

hence the extra cleanup..

Was there a grassy knoll and maybe a "magic cicada"?? [laugh]

I had a bat hit me in the forehead just below my helmet when I was riding my bicycle once at dusk when I lived in California for a little while. I was booking it along to get home quickly, so maybe between 12 ans 15 mph, and the thing flew right into my forehead just under the visor of my bicycle helmet. I had to stop and shake my head a bit to clear things up and recover. It hurt like heck, the thing seemed at least 9 inches wind-tip-to-wing-tip, but I did only get a glimpse of it RIGHT before it hit me so it might have been bigger or smaller, but it definitely was a bat.

The Doc

Not to take this thread to another level of grossness...but...it is my way...

Back in around 2003, there was a large brood that emerged in the midwest.  The local news guys were making a big deal about how dogs and other animals loved to eat them.  Then they went on to say that cicadas are actually very healthy to eat.

Well, I must have been inhibited by drink...or something like that...and so I opened my big mouth and said I would eat one.  My friends held me to that, and so we fried a couple up cajun style...and yes, I ate a big juicy cicada.

FWIW...it was disgusting, and I don't see myself ever repeating the feat. 

Mike B

i thought you guys had flocks of parrots doing the same thing

It is all in how they are prepared.  Everyone knows that you don't eat cicadas cajun style.

Raw, they are but survival food.

Yeah, you cooked 'em wrong. Fry 'em in butter, and serve with a ranch dipping sauce.
Yummmm

I remember the Washington Post doing a food section about recipes on cooking them and there was a curry recipe that sounded interesting at the time...

Those damn martian bugs.  Never been hit by one but I'm sure just the shock of that thing whacking you would scare the make the beast with two backs out of anyone.

This should go in the official I'm drunk thread!!! [laugh] [laugh]

For the record, next Thursday the 19th is my 4 year anniversary of cutting a full grown wild turkey in half with my Arai Corsair in Oklahoma! [thumbsup] And yes all my fused neck vertebrae still hurt like a son of a pregnant dog! :P And I am still waiting for the Oklahoma Parks and Wildlife Dept. to send me my certificate for taking the dumbest make the beast with two backsing turkey out of the gene pool! [laugh]

We have Cicadas here, but I've never hit one.

However, I have nearly taken out a turkey with a school bus.  I DID take out a crow with a school bus.

I have also eliminated MANY bumble bees or carpenter bees while riding.  I can't make a positive ID from them hitting my visor at 60MPH with a gun-like report from the impact.

JM

There is always DNA sampling to provide you with a positive ID to species!

My sweetie told me a story about how she had to pick out hundreds of mushed bee carcases from the mesh front of her 675 after a ride one summer.  She said the swarm that she went through left them litterally splattered all over her helmet, her gear, and her bike!!

A few years back on a rural Iowa backroad, I was following my cousin on a sprited ride on a beautiful day...when a pheasant flushed out of the brush next to us and was promptly gutted by my cousins R6 left front turn signal stalk.  And I, of course, took a perfectly timed spray of bird insides all over my bike and leathers.  We stopped, and had a good laugh...mainly of relief because if that bird had been a bit quicker it could have gotten caught in the R6's front wheel.

The moral of the story kids...it is better to lead and have to replace a turn signal, then follow and have to clean your bike and leathers of bird guts.

Wow...I'm just full of disgusting stories on this thread.  Anyone want to hear a third?

Mike

I knew a guy who took an inflight bat (the mammal) in the chest while riding down a dark rural road!!

Yes please!

\\

Try that same stunt with a full size tom turkey off the helmet. :P I could do without the concussion, being knocked unconscience and the four crushed vertebrae that are now fused and very painful. I could do without the $17K helo ride too.. [bang] Just sayin'...

i bet thanksgiving is your favorite holiday

There are annual cicadas as well as the 13/17 year life cycle types.

That is all

Absolutely!! [laugh] [laugh] When I was in the hospital checking off the menu card (what I wanted to eat for b-fast, lunch and dinner) my then 10 year old step son said I should have turkey sandwiches at every meal to get even! [laugh] No biological connection but he does have my don't get mad get even mentality! ;D Oh... and my "friends" leave gobbling voice mail messages at Thanksgiving. I have even had voice mail messages that said the Oklahoma turkey mafia has an active "hit" out on me and there's a price on my head! [cheeky] I say bring it! [thumbsup] ;)

If that is what you agree to when you are inhibited ... I cannot imagine what you might agree to if you were uninhibited ;) [cheeky]

I was on a spirited ride with Duck-Stew one afternoon when something hit my front brake lever hard enough to apply the brake, pinch my fingers, give me a minor tankslapper.

Stew said it looked like I flew through a cloud of moths... It was the feathers of an exploded bird.

The aftermath... (not for the squemish)

(http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-16.jpg)
(http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-19.jpg)
(http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-18.jpg)
(http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-20.jpg)

Coulda been worse... at least it wasn't a turkey. :-X


[bacon]

You know, it was funny. No blood and guts from the turkey. Everyone has asked me about that. None even stuck or splattered on the Arai. You'd think there would have been a little bird goo and some feathers. Maybe it was all that Honda spray polish I used. ;D Oh well... happy 4th anniversary to me today. [thumbsup] [moto] Sure wish it had just been a cicada. [bang]

a few years ago we paid a drunk buddy $20 to eat a dead one. he dipped it in his drink first to make sure it was flavored well.

Did one of those bugz put a hole in your tank?

A not-too-smart black bird committed suicide on my front brake lever.

That would be blood all over my tank...  :P  Got all over my leathers, and when I pulled over to check for damage, there were little chunks of bird meat cooking on the engine case and pipes.

Not as tasty as [bacon].....   :-\

I'll put money on that being an assumption. ;D

actually...    ;)












I was just comparing the smell of bird meat cooking in a light coating of 20w50 on the crankcase breather to the smell of bacon frying in a large dollop of butter.  Bacon wins!  :D


[bacon]

Mythbusters did a show on how hard an insect would hit a rider at speed.  They used a mockup of a goliath beetle and went up to 200 mph -- still not enough to kill a person.

(http://urbantitan.com/10-worlds-weirdest-insects/goliath-www-dekvanzclub-in-th/)

You fry your bacon in butter?

just the first row, to keep them from sticking to the hot cast iron pan...  ;)

...at least that's my excuse!   [evil]

;D


It really adds to the flavor of the bacon, too!   [drool] [bow_down]




[bacon]

You could mix in a few cicadas since you've already added butter

Mmm... Bacon-wrapped Cicadas sautéed in butter...

Extra crunchy!  ;D




[bacon]