... with apologies to Neil Diamond, of course.
This morning, friend Alma Boykin put up this video clip of the sounds of cicadas in Texas.
It reminded me that I find American cicadas to be so quiet that they're hardly noticeable. My friends here tell me I'm crazy, that they're really loud . . . but I come from southern Africa, where cicadas can be so loud that you could use them as an instrument of torture - like this:
Must be a different variety of cicada, I guess, or maybe a lot more of them. I have many memories of camping where the noise was so great, one had to use earplugs to try to fall asleep. (That was its own hazard, as "things that go bump in the night" were very frequently encountered in the bush, and one needed to be able to hear them in order to do something about them - before they did something about you! We usually had someone awake and alert, or at the very least not using earplugs.)
Peter
So the African ones are louder and more prone to procreation? Shiver me timbers!
ReplyDeleteI see what you did there... well played!
DeleteWe have a near lack of cicadas around here this summer. I think I've heard three so far.
ReplyDeleteHeh. The African one sounds like my tinnitus.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the decibel level of a cicada?
ReplyDeleteIs that the American or the African variety?
I suppose it depends on the hatch. I've seen years where the racket was more like the African than the Texan. The sound reminded me of that of the Enterprise firing its shipboard phasers continuously.
ReplyDeleteHmm, maybe our Tennessee Cicadas are Africanized?
ReplyDeleteBrutal this year, weren't they?
DeleteThey are all white noise to me, but yes, 'somebody' staying awake would be good!
ReplyDeleteCicadas in Houston TX are not nearly as bad as last year.
ReplyDeleteSo far this year in New Orleans is pretty quiet. I know they run on a [seven?] Year cycle. Some years thier little husks are on every tree and post and evenings are just a musical extravaganza. Still a bit early though, late August, early September is tjier peak.
ReplyDeleteYeah haven’t heard any across the lake from NOLA
ReplyDelete