OT: THEY are here...

Arkcon · #1 April 21st, 2004, 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Argh! I HATE cicadas! Insecticide is a waste because it kills everything indiscriminately, but there's got to be some way to kill them efficiently. Why do nasty diseases always attack harmless things like trees? Why can't there be one for cicadas? Maybe this is a good genetic engineering project.

Well, there's always the cicada wasp {click}. There's a lot more of these guys around, 'cause there's more cicadas, 'cause people are doing less pesticide broadcasting over the past 10-20 years.

Wish I still had a cat, she'd be pouncing all over them on the lawn as soon as they emerged. That was one happy cat -- full belly and she got to kill something.

Kamog · #2 April 21st, 2004, 02:04 AM

What I find interesting is, why do ALL the cicadas of the same species happen to follow the exact same 17-year life cycle? Why aren't the life cycles staggered so that each year, some of them emerge from the ground, finishing their 17-year periods? Why are they so syncronized? So at any given time, all the cicadas alive are exactly the same age!

I wonder how it all got started in the beginning.

Baron Munchausen · #3 April 21st, 2004, 04:34 AM

We could box them up and ship them to China. I hear that the Chinese think they are tasty!

I wonder how much we could get per pound?

parabolize · #4 April 21st, 2004, 04:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kamog:
What I find interesting is, why do ALL the cicadas of the same species happen to follow the exact same 17-year life cycle? Why aren't the life cycles staggered so that each year, some of them emerge from the ground, finishing their 17-year periods? Why are they so syncronized? So at any given time, all the cicadas alive are exactly the same age!

I wonder how it all got started in the beginning.

Birds can only eat so many in a day

dogscoff · #5 April 21st, 2004, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Birds can only eat so many in a day

Think of it as a massed fighter swarm to overwhelm enemy point-defence=-)

narf poit chez BOOM · #6 April 21st, 2004, 09:50 AM

BUGGIES!

Arkcon · #7 April 21st, 2004, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kamog:
What I find interesting is, why do ALL the cicadas of the same species happen to follow the exact same 17-year life cycle? Why aren't the life cycles staggered so that each year, some of them emerge from the ground, finishing their 17-year periods? Why are they so syncronized? So at any given time, all the cicadas alive are exactly the same age!

I wonder how it all got started in the beginning.

This is common in the natural world. Randomly spaced "bumper crops" followed by low years so predators don't overwhelm the prey. Happens with acorns, cherries, and in this case Brood X {wiki}