Monday, May 30, 2011

The First Locust!



I heard the first locust (cicada) yesterday. Each year my daughter, Summer, and I have a contest as to who hears the locust call FIRST. This year she won by several days! I was in Dallas last evening enjoying a cookout in a friend's backyard when the SOUND OF SUMMER IN TEXAS came to my ears! I never recall the LAST one of the season I hear - which can be as late as the end of September or the first of October. But I ALWAYS notice the first one!

My son, Jesse, said they run on 13 year cycles and this is year 13! This means we must brace ourselves for the exceptionally  LOUD noise! There have been years it nearly drove me crazy! By and large I know SUMMER is here when I hear the locust calling. Soon I will be sweeping the shells off the sides of the house.
I guess the mosquitoes and flies will be arriving soon as well. The ants are already here!

I have to go out now and round up the 'Off' and citronella candles before the insect population descends upon us!

*** Technically these are NOT the destructive LOCUSTS.....and I don't know why I have always called them that but that's what I have HEARD them called here all my life!
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8 comments:

  1. DebMay 30, 2011 at 6:25 PM

    definately mesquitos after all the rains....hope you had a nice weekend...

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  2. Diana FergusonMay 30, 2011 at 6:32 PM

    Hope you had a great weekend!

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  3. peggyMay 30, 2011 at 6:54 PM

    It will be fun to see how many cicadas get to Michigan, usually I hear them but never see one. I think they like the South better.

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  4. ★Carol★May 30, 2011 at 8:24 PM

    I don't think I've ever heard a locust before! I wonder how they compare to the sound of cicadas. Those can be extremely loud, but I actually love that sound. To me it means summer!

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  5. BevMay 30, 2011 at 9:35 PM

    Would Locust be the same as a grasshopper? Now Mesquitoes..some days I go outside and I am covered in them...We have had way to much rain!

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  6. LindaMay 30, 2011 at 10:13 PM

    No, not a grasshopper. They are called cicadas and katydids. They may not be actual locust (but that's what we call them here) because I don't think they are particularly destructive. They made a whirring sound that crescendoes and then dies down again. They can be REALLY loud!

    And blogger won't let me comment as 'me'...

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  7. CherylMay 31, 2011 at 2:52 AM

    Hi Linda, saw your comment on Maddie's blog and thought I'd pop over and will follow as it seems we have a similar love of the natural. We have cicadas in Australia - similar casing and shape but different colour but not called a locust here - that's a ravenous grasshopper style insect here. Nice to meet you.

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  8. Auntie sezzzzzz...May 31, 2011 at 1:42 PM

    We call 'em Cicada, up here. :-)

    To me, they mean long, hot, summer afternoons. :-)

    It's a kind of a long and piercing sound, if I'm thinking of the same bug. :-)

    She-who-still-can't-make-my-preferred-pics-post. But I think its my issue and not Blogger, this time.
    ~♥~

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