They're baaaack. The cicadas have officially begun their swarming arrival in the United States and I witnessed first-hand what all those critters look like clumped together in a small space over the weekend. For me, these cicadas, also known as, locusts are a childhood memory. Summer evenings, my dad, sister, and I would walk throughout the neighborhood and collect all their outer shells while listening to them chirp their song. Now that I write it, it sounds strange, but for us it was kind of like a scavenger hunt. Since locusts haven't been around in large clumps for almost two decades, finding their empty shell was a challenge as a child. And when we would spot them camouflaged into the bark of the tree, we felt like victors and would pluck them off and drop them into our plastic bucket, never really collecting more than you can count on two hands. With 17 years passing since their last invasion (1996 was their last massive presence), it is time for them to appear once more, coming out of their long hibernation in the ground. If only I were a child this summer, my little bucket would be to the brim with the leftover shells of those always-singing bugs.
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