June 28, 2007

Cicada with the Red Eyes

I was driving by the Beverly Arts Center today and saw the cicada sculpture that I had mentioned previously now has a pair of bright red eyes.

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Posted by Ron Wolford at 12:29 AM | Permalink |

June 18, 2007

Blue-eyed Cicada Found in Lincolnshire

Max, a young man from Lincolnshire, Illinois took this photo of a blue-eyed cicada in his backyard. Only 1% of all of the millions of emerging cicadas have blue eyes. Congratulations Max on this great find!

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Posted by Ron Wolford at 5:35 PM | Permalink |

June 18, 2007

Cicada Sculpture at Beverly Arts Center

Chainsaw artist, Ben Schlitz at benofficialproductions@yahoo.com created a cicada sculpture from a tree trunk for the Home Tour at the Beverly Arts Center. The sculpture is in the west end of the Beverly Arts Center parking lot.

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Posted by Ron Wolford at 3:26 PM | Permalink |

June 10, 2007

17 Uses for a Dead Cicada

The singing of the male cicadas will stop soon and the final event in the cicada's life cycle will soon follow. We will have thousands of dead cicadas on lawns and sidewalks. What to do with all those cicadas?

In 2004 the Cincinnati Enquirer after the invasion of the Brood X cicadas ran an interesting article, "17 Uses for a Dead Cicada".

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Posted by Ron Wolford at 8:38 PM | Permalink |

June 9, 2007

Downers Grove Boy Finds Rare Blue-eyed Cicada

A six year old from Downers Grove, Illinois found a blue-eyed cicada in his backyard. According to experts, the find is 'one in a million'.

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Posted by Ron Wolford at 2:56 PM | Permalink |

June 7, 2007

Cicada Smorgasbord at Brookfield Zoo

Some of Brookfield Zoo's animals are chowing down on the emerging cicadas. Cicadas have been harvested by zoo staff and fed live and frozen to the animals. Zoo nutritionists state the the cicadas are high in protein and low in fat.

Posted by Ron Wolford at 10:54 AM | Permalink |

June 4, 2007

Entomologist's Explanation of Deformed Cicadas

I have seen numerous news reports over the last week about all the deformed cicadas. I asked our entomologist, Phil Nixon to comment.

The following are Phil's comments: There are always many deformed cicadas in these emergences. When insects emerge into adults, they need to get into a vertical position. When periodical cicadas emerge, there are so many individuals that many cicadas cannot climb to vertical surfaces in time to emerge properly, simply because all the space is taken by other cicadas. With other insects, predators quickly eat those that do not emerge properly. With large numbers of cicadas, the predators are overwhelmed, some of the cicadas that don't emerge properly are not eaten, and we are able to see them.

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Posted by Ron Wolford at 6:37 PM | Permalink |

May 30, 2007

Des Plaines Cicada Report

Pamela reports having lots of cicadas near her home in Des Plaines.

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Posted by Ron Wolford at 6:36 AM | Permalink |

May 30, 2007

La Grange Cicada Emergence Report

Robert from La Grange reported that he was barbecuing Monday night and the family noticed at around dawn how the grass was moving and the cicadas were emerging.While he was sitting for a few minutes near the driveway, four cicadas crawled up his legs. A lot of the cicadas had deformed wings.

Comments: rwolford@uiuc.edu

Posted by Ron Wolford at 5:58 AM | Permalink |

May 29, 2007

They're Here at Last!

According to today's Chicago Tribune the cicadas have emerged in mass. At the Bemis Woods Forest Preserve in Western Springs, Illinois a single tree was surrounded by a 100,000 cicadas. Trees at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, and yards in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood, Oakbrook and Palos Heights were covered with cicadas.

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Posted by Ron Wolford at 8:23 AM | Permalink |