Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures in The Good Land is largely a fish out of water tale about how I eventually found my footing on a small farm in an Amish town. We are a mostly organic, somewhat self sufficient, sustainable farm in Ohio. There's action and adventure and I'll always tell you the truth about farming.


Wednesday, June 1, 2016

The bugs.... they are loud. Really really loud.

So The Great Cicada Hatch of 2016 continues... loudly. I don't know how I missed this whole loud bug thing earlier in my life but I did. I had no idea this happened. But it is..and it's annoying. I thought it would be cool to see but all you do is hear it. All. Day. Long.

This is about how loud they are. All stinkin' day. 

I thought I should document the whole bug thing... you know, for science. This is why you are getting the bug update. It's actually kind of interesting. But loud. For the record, the chickens are loving this whole bug thing. They are all fat and happy and can barely walk because of how many bugs they are eating.

I learned a few things about this hatch - which is entirely different then when the "regular" cicadas come out at the end of summer and predict the frost. This hatch has nothing to do with that. It's just a thing that happens.

 We are finding things for Bubby to do that do not involve eating bugs. Like digging to China.

So far they aren't causing any damage...other than to Bubby's tummy. We have to keep him out of the woods because he likes to eat the bugs which then make his belly upset. His new project is to dig to China under the Turkey House.

My orchard friend said these cicadas don't do any real damage to their fruit trees. However after the eggs are laid, hatched, and then drop into the ground near the tree the larva (or grubs) will dig down and chew on the roots. He said that is the real problem for their fruit trees.

The bugs are now loud enough to hear them inside with the windows closed..and my hubs said that he could hear them when he was driving yesterday. Pretty much it's like living in a special effects sound stage where The New Guy is playing with the  "alien noises" button and just keeps turning it up and up and up.

This morning I noticed a huge pile of bugs and bug bodies near the base of one of our trees. I suspect there will be a clean up effort involved. Until then the chickens are all fat and happy.

Happy Wednesday everyone! Are your bugs loud?


3 comments:

Vera said...

Just watched a YT vid about cicadas after reading your blog, and crikey but I am glad we don't have them here!

Ohiofarmgirl said...

i thought it would be a totally cool thing... but it's just loud, annoying, and giving my dogs the poops. no one is happy. ha!
:-(

Anonymous said...

nothing here so far, but i'm in northern ohio, between youngstown and pittsburgh. about three weeks ago, i heard them one afternoon, but that was in suburban cleveland. --suz in ohio

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