17-Year Cicadas in Downers Grove, IL

[CanadianReich]

thats good eat'n!

[DRTMaverick]

These little guys add a lot of fertilizer to the land when they die.

[tall32guy]

Those were all their skins weren't they? Since they come out of the ground and molt.

[Lydok]

I remember in 1987 my friend and I went out into his backyard and had batting practice with these things using wiffle ball bats. They were everywhere. There were so many that they would land all over you. Good times!

[hypocrisyLOL]

i was in forth grade when the 17 year cicada "invasion" happened =D i was freeked out about them at first because the were getting in the house.. in my bookbag... on me.. my dog loved them though he kept tryign to eat them when they flew by

[Marmalade000000]

Phenomenal... weird how they come out every 17 years just to mate

[eskercurve]

I remember in 1990 when they last came out. Things were nasty. I remember riding my bike through a park and they were EVERYWHERE! I didn't want to walk because I literally step on a few every step. I was 10 then. Since then I've gone to college and moved on and that's one headache of Chicago I don't miss (miss the city overall).

[sidewindermack]

Cicadas make a really good Pizza topping!

[Landaux]

They are like a grasshopper swarm up there! We dont get them like that here in the south, just the green ones with blue eyes and you only see a only a couple at a time go up the trees emerging from their skins.

[watermelonorange]

that must smell good

[choirfreak26]

@gix500 No, they made them out of icing and frosting. They were pretty cute :)

[Michael326]

Bricks were shat.

[compdude47]

They're like the buicks of the insect world. Huge and inoffensive, and old people love them.

[Makoflakes]

this is before they begin to earrape the town with their air-raid siren, but beautifully hypnotic, songs.

[mustang6172]

I think they are having some sort of orgy.

[choirfreak26]

My mom's bakery made cicada cookies and they sold out so fast! Who knew people would want bugs made of icing???

[gix500]

@choirfreak26 there were cicadas inside the cookies?

[Trystera]

They're so cute! I was JUST out of the territory for the Brood X cicadas last time; I still wanna meet one someday. ^_^

[dug699]

breakout the airsoft guns

[jkillahmandude]

@dug699 pew pew i got a pulse rifle ag and i will whip em up

[soccercrazy1124]

OH YEAH! i know that street.

[poopdogsays]

i thought these were the bugs that make the constant buzz sound... My grandparents used to say it meant 6 weeks left of summer...

I see 1 or 2 dead Cicadas every year in Michigan, am I missing something?

[GuitarWhisperer]

This particular species of Cicada emerges once every 17 years, in HUGE SWARMS, poopdog.

The ones you see are probably anual cicadas which emerge yearly in much smaller numbers.

[RoNiNaRcAnGeL]

DUDE! i graduated from Downers South when this was going on... he entire cerimony was just bad... they flew everywhere and everyone had at least one fly on their gown...

[lyoko1012]

man i freakin hate those things one nearly flew in my mouth

[decos0]

they kinnda look like fingers to me

[sportsplaya3]

those just came up last year in chicago when i went and they are so loud it aint even funny

[buffalocrotch]

Yup, I grew up near Downers Grove, I remember the 17 year Cicadas in 1973, and in 1990. I visited the Chicago area in 2007, and was in Hinsdale for a day, and they were frickin horrible there.

[Racecars721]

lol i remember those it was like 2004 when i first saw them all they did was fall from the trees and die

[BlackValleyRequiem]

Thats cuz they dont eat once they reach adult hood, they just do it till they die XD

[Racecars721]

u know why?

no mouth parts lol

[fresianMilk]

I think it was the Spanish conquerors and settlers who first noticed them from Europe because the name 'cicada' sounds spanish, though i might be wrong. Who cares - they're such an mathematical phenomenon in nature

[cunningprose]

It's weird... I saw NONE in Palatine.

[choirfreak26]

You should have seen them out in the Palos/Orland area. They were horrendous out by Turtle Lake.

[ofcoursecali]

they were TERRIBLe in Glen Ellyn

[macrox77]

I love cicadas!

[FURfox08]

you live on the south side?

[bradmaster13]

they wernt that bad in my part of downers