Our Summer Cicadas

Every Summer, when the temperatures start to reach over 95ºF (35ºC), the Green Cicadas come out from under ground, fly in our trees and use their abdomen to call out for a mate. Usually, we begin to hear them in mid to end June. Since May was very warm, they had an early start in late Spring this year. Sometimes, I sit under the tree and just listen to them for a while. The cicada’s calls are so soothing. And with them being around, we definitely know that Summer has officially arrived in North Texas.

- post from Tanja Chester on the blog 'Under The Pecan Tree', 2018

This may not be North Texas, but even here the call of the cicadas translates to 'summer is upon us'. I love to listen to their enthusiastic calling while in the shade by the water, preferably near the glowing embers of a dying campfire. It puts my mind at ease as I connect to slower, simpler times. Yes, you can hear the cicadas' shrilling in town, but if you visit a rural wooded wetland you will be completely surrounded by the harmonizing irregular pulse that this land's early inhabitants knew well.

Just as my campfire raged and cooled, the cicadas will flourish and decline in rapid fashion. They appear to have little else on their minds but reproduction. In layman terms, they arrive, they breed, and they disappear leaving behind only the hollow shells that cling to their old stomping grounds. It is interesting and a little sad to think about.

Here is a picture of a cicada emerging from its exoskeleton.