Swarmageddon

The cicadas have arrived in full force. It's actually pretty awesome. Since they wait 17 years to make their appearance, I thought they deserved some documentation. So here are the pictures that I took this morning:

 An adult, hanging onto his molted nymph shell.

 One of the thousands of molted shells hanging from our trees.

 Our front porch

A newly molted adult cicada--it fell on my front door mat right in front of me.

 

I know, I know. I'm a giant dork. I'm okay with that. I just think this whole process is so interesting! They live in the ground for 17 years, come out all at once, molt, mate, lay eggs, and die. The mating hum alone is awe inspiring. Every day this week it has sounded like a house alarm going off in the distance. It took me two days to realize that it was not, in fact, a house alarm. And apparently my dorkiness will not die with me...Charlotte loves looking at these bugs. We found a nymph climbing up a tree in order to claim his molting spot, and she asked, "Can I pet him?"

 

And just so I don't piss anyone off who wants pictures of my family, as opposed to bugs, here you go: