Yesterday, while hanging controls out in the forest at Willow Springs Woods near Chicago, I was amazed by the sudden appearance of huge clouds of fat and noisy cicadas, seemingly everywhere. Just last weekend there was absolutely no sign of any insects; they've all appeared in just the past few days.
Apparently this is Brood XIII of the 17-year
cicada. But I have never seen anything like it. The noise these things make, they say, can exceed 90 db...its a humanistic sound: kind of like a huge unseen chorus singing "Ommmmm..." Spooky. Sari said it reminded her of
The Birds.
Local news reports say this year the hatch rate of Brood XIII is particularly abundant, for a variety of reasons most of which seem to relate to Global Warming. But as orienteers, we are in a position to become especially aware of this phenom.
How widespread is this infestation? Has anyone else noticed a large increase in the number of bugs in the woods this spring?