The Cicada

The bugs in Arkansas are GINORMOUS.


Everything just seems bigger.  Evan and I may have figured it out too.  With no winter to speak of, the buggies don't die off or hibernate, they just keep growing.  And growing.


In the south, they have these things called cicadas.  I had never heard of one until I moved to Virginia.  The trees were making this crazy sound at night and I asked a new friend, "What in the world is that noise?!"  Cicadas.  Oh, of course.


I never saw one until I moved to Arkansas.  In case you were wondering, they are 1-2 inches long and nearly as wide.  I don't know why, but they just fall out of the sky apparently.

For example, we went running the other day (pick your jaw up off the ground.  I'm actually doing pretty ok) and one dive bombed us, then flew around drunkenly before finally hitting the pavement.  I'm fairly certain it was scorched so badly it died there.  Have I mentioned it has been 100+ since May?  By 9am we are usually up to 90.

Anyhow, back to the bugs.  I left for work Wednesday, and there was one half dead in my rosemary!  It's still there, I'm afraid to touch it.  I suspect my rosemary will only last a couple more weeks in this drought anyhow, so I'll just dump it all together.

Last night, as Evan's research buddy was leaving, one dive bombed it's way into our house.  It flew around drunkenly (notice a pattern?) then hid somewhere.  We couldn't find it.  Which is amazing because it is HUGE!  So we went to bed.  I woke up and there was a pillow against the crack of the door.  Apparently Evan had this recurring thought that it would crawl under and start flying drunkenly around the bedroom.  I'm glad we were protected.

We waited this morning for it to start flying around.  It was quite the sight to see the two of us (neither very fond of bugs.  Especially large flying ones) trying to get it out.  Finally we got it under a cup and let it fall off the balcony.  These cicadas have it out for me.

Remember when we first moved here and saw some snake head looking bug in the ground?  The mystery has been solved!  Cicada!