Question about CICADAS [Archive]

K8YS

05-18-2004, 12:22 AM

OK, so this is not CB vs Ham, not "why I hate the hamvention", not a "nuke em till they glow" approach to curing the problems in Iraq... but is a question that my brother gave me yesterday...

As with most of the country, we are about to be attacked by the dreaded "17 year locust" or more correctly, the CICADA.

While they are big dumb ugly bugs, they could serve as a diversion, if I can only figure out the gross payload a cicada can handle.

Can they carry an "inch and a half'er" or are they limited to "lady finger" sized firecrackers?

Can two or more carry a "M-80"?

How many need to be super glued to a balsa toy airplane for self-propelled flight?

AND... we are going to see how many can be shot down with CO powered air-pistols.

K8YS

WA5KRP

05-18-2004, 12:34 AM

Think of them as a noisy DC-3.

Don't think so? #Wait until one flies into the side of your head! #Swat one of those muthers and it's 17 years of bad luck.

http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/fauna/michigan_cicadas/Periodical/CicadaGraphics/courtship.jpg

Your call.

WA5KRP
Chicharas, Texas

KC9ECI

05-18-2004, 12:44 AM

If any of them are foolish enough to venture this far north, I'm going to eat them.
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
Cicadas are a delicacy in the city of Shanghai, China, where this creative recipe originated.

Ingredients
Cicadas, anises, salt, rice wine, mashed garlic, celery, turnip greens.

Recipe
1. Boil the cicadas and anises in salted rice wine for five minutes, then remove the cicadas.
2. Sauté the mashed garlic, adding water and rice wine to make a paste.
3. Deep-fry the cicadas, then skewer them with bamboo picks. Arrange them on a plate with the turnip greens, celery, and garlic paste to look like the cicadas are climbing out of a mud pie onto green foliage. Bon appetit![/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

ae4fa

05-18-2004, 12:59 AM

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (KC9ECI @ May 17 2004,17:44)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">If any of them are foolish enough to venture this far north, I'm going to eat them.
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">
Cicadas are a delicacy in the city of Shanghai, China, where this creative recipe originated.

Ingredients
Cicadas, anises, salt, rice wine, mashed garlic, celery, turnip greens.

Recipe
1. Boil the cicadas and anises in salted rice wine for five minutes, then remove the cicadas.
2. Sauté the mashed garlic, adding water and rice wine to make a paste.
3. Deep-fry the cicadas, then skewer them with bamboo picks. Arrange them on a plate with the turnip greens, celery, and garlic paste to look like the cicadas are climbing out of a mud pie onto green foliage. Bon appetit![/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Do not do this if you are allergic to shellfish!

Interesting that is the best indicator that you might have an allergy to cicadas - and Puerto Rican cockroaches . . .

N0KLT

05-18-2004, 01:43 AM

Man, I don't eat bait or insects if I can possibley help it. I can't ever remember being hungry enough to chow down on a cicada. To each his own I guess but that's just plain awful nasty sounding.

73

and happy munching

Gary NØKLT

WA5KRP

05-18-2004, 02:30 AM

NO KIDDING.........what a way to screw up an EXCELLENT recipe! #May as well top it off with Brussels sprouts, why doncha.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWW!

WA5KRP

KC9ECI

05-18-2004, 02:52 AM

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (wa5krp @ May 17 2004,20:30)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">NO KIDDING.........what a way to screw up an EXCELLENT recipe! #May as well top it off with Brussels sprouts, why doncha.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWW!

WA5KRP[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Not enjoying Brussels sprouts is just plain wrong.

KA9VQF

05-18-2004, 05:10 AM

Might be fun to fry the bugs while drinking the rice wine. doubt I'll be eating them soon tho.

N8CPA

05-18-2004, 10:09 AM

Why not tie one to a hook and use it as a bass bug? I bet the smallmouths would love it.

KA3RFE

05-18-2004, 11:50 AM

I got it! Trap about a dozen or so, attach heavy cord to them and let them raise your dipole further up the tree....

n3mvf

05-18-2004, 11:55 AM

Ahhh...not as much fun as popping a tent worm with your bicycle as a kid and watching and hear him explode.
But...still should be good fun with a poor mans flame thrower....can of hair spray and lighter.

73
Greg

w3bny

05-18-2004, 12:18 PM

Dont know about weight:thrust loads but as a kid in south Texas we used to fly em on sewing thread. one took away a half a spool!

Now African swallows....they can carry as compared to the European swallow... http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

p.s. NI!

KC2KQH

05-18-2004, 04:53 PM

Tent worm, how about a "hornworm". #The big green worms we get on the tomato plants here in Jersey. #They are named for the red 'horn' that sticks out and up from their tail end. #Now you want to talk about a pop.
Ryan -KC2KQH

n0ov

05-18-2004, 07:46 PM

I'd like to hook one up to an antenna tuner and see if one of those puppies will get me a rare dx contact

kn6z

05-18-2004, 08:04 PM

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K8YS @ May 17 2004,17:22)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">While they are big dumb ugly bugs[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Please, ad hominem attacks are not allowed on this site.

W7KCU

05-18-2004, 08:40 PM

We used "June Bugs" for our airplanes on a string when I was growing up in MS, because you had to wait 17 yrs. for the CICADAS to hatch & we would have been "growed" up by then. CATALPA (?) WORMS/caterpillars also make good fish bait for crappie,bass,bluegill,etc., fishing with a cane pole with a bobber & hook on your line !

George---W7KCU, ex:WA5MKA(Corinth,MS originally) http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

P.S. Cook & eat the fish you catch ! Don't cook & eat the bait ! Bird's nest soup anyone ?

K8YS

05-18-2004, 09:04 PM

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (WA5MKA @ May 17 2004,14:40)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">We used "June Bugs" for our airplanes on a string when I was growing up in MS, because you had to wait 17 yrs. for the CICADAS to hatch & we would have been "growed" up by then. CATALPA (?) WORMS/caterpillars also make good fish bait for crappie,bass,bluegill,etc., fishing with a cane pole with a bobber & hook on your line !

George---W7KCU, ex:WA5MKA(Corinth,MS originally) http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

P.S. Cook & eat the fish you catch ! Don't cook & eat the bait ! Bird's nest soup anyone ?[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
you can never be growed up enuf! I'm on the long side of fourty and I am looking forward to the cicadas and the havoc I can cause.

K8YS

05-18-2004, 09:22 PM

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (kn6z @ May 17 2004,14:04)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (K8YS @ May 17 2004,17:22)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">While they are big dumb ugly bugs[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Please, ad hominem attacks are not allowed on this site.[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
only if you are a cicada

N0KLT

05-18-2004, 10:31 PM

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (n3mvf @ May 18 2004,05:55)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Ahhh...not as much fun as popping a tent worm with your bicycle as a kid and watching and hear him explode.
But...still should be good fun with a poor mans flame thrower....can of hair spray and lighter.

73
Greg[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Lighting bagworms was fun too, you just had to be dang careful you didn't catch the tree or cedar bush on fire doing. Also, I found it was a good idea not to let your folks catch you doing it either. Parents tend to have little or no sense of humor about things like that. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

73

Gary NØKLT

W8FAX

05-18-2004, 10:47 PM

Cicadas are like political parties. They come out every few years, make a lot of noise, do a lot of damage, do "it" to each other, and then fade away until the next time....................

w6ez

05-19-2004, 04:22 PM

One of my fondest memories as a young 'un was catching a big jar full of cicadas. When you grabbed them the let off a loud squeal (but I don't know if insects really squeal) and then if you let them loose in the house they would be all over the drapes and window screens. Sooner or later one of them would start "singing" and all the others would join in. Drove my mother crazy but it was better than the jar full of big ol' black bumbel bees I let loose at sunday school.

Back to the orgional question, I know that a big fat cicada can lift a plastic army man tied to it with sewing thread.

Buy I never understood the 17 year thing. We used to catch them every summer. Maybe there were 17 groups on different 17 year cycles.

KG4CGC

05-19-2004, 05:41 PM

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (KC0LNU @ May 18 2004,08:46)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I'd like to hook one up to an antenna tuner and see if one of those puppies will get me a rare dx contact[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
Ah Man! I was going to use that one!

N8CPA

05-20-2004, 10:54 AM

When I was young, we used to get a few of those cicada shells on our mulberry tree every year. We called the live ones we found crawling up the bark "pinching bugs." Those ugly red-eyed monsters scared the dickens out of us!

Speaking of bagworms, I assume you mean what we call tent caterpillars. And the same tree where we found the cicadas is where we would find the tent caterpillars. And the way the tent caterpillars got there is interesting. They were originally seeded there, a failed experiment in silk production carried out a hundred years before.

K8YS

05-21-2004, 12:25 AM

when I was a kid, we had a serious problem with bag worms... to cure was to light up a torch, and then set fire to the bag. The fun part was to watch the burning bugs fall out of the bag towards the ground.... ahh, fond memories of youth http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

N0KLT

05-21-2004, 12:33 AM

The bagworms I was talking about are an insect that attacks cedars and maybe other evergreens, they attach to the limbs, usually near the end of a branch and must borrow into the branch, but they build a "bag" that contains the larva (I assume it's larva anyway). I no longer remember what the original form the insect took when it created the bag and the worm inside. They would stay inside the bag for a period of time which I also don't remember. Enough of the little buggers and they could kill or seriously damage a good sized cedar. The bags seem to contain wood shavings or tiny chips, not real sure what they were all made of though. I do know they were squishy when grabbed and would burn when hit with a flame from a pocket lighter. I can remember seeing bunches of them some years in our stand of cedars we used for a windbreak. I don't think we ever lost any trees but I remember several branches dying and having to be cut out. Where I live now we only have a few cedars and those are just bushes around the house. Our larger ones died out several years ago due to a bad case of cedar rust on this area. The whole neighborhood was hit and lost a good share of the cedar trees we had. Now and then I would see a few bagworms in the cedar trees and by going out and knocking them off it seemed to control them or at least here in eastern Nebraska we didn't have enough of an infestation of them to be a problem. I still remember catch h*** from my folks for lighting bagworm bags though, some darned thing about setting fires and stuff like that. Like I mentioned the first time I talked about bagworms, the parents just had no sense of humor about things like that. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

73

Gary NØKLT

KG6OPR

05-22-2004, 04:13 PM

....Ok here is one for cheap fun. When I was a kid we head out to the trash can and catch the biggist fly we could fine. We stick um in a pill jar and put um in the icebox for about a hour. While he was cooling down(cooling them slows them down makes them easy to work with.) While waiting you made a small paper airplane. I bet your wondering where I am going with this, any way you get the fly out of the icebox take um out of the pill jar, then you put some crazy glue on its back side. Then you stick the paper airplane to him. The fly will defrost. Now you have a fly powered airplane. They last for about a half hour then they crash. What great fun. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
# # # # # # # # # # # # KG6OPR

K8YS

05-23-2004, 04:10 AM

a long long time ago, when I worked as a bench tech at a local department store chain's inhouse electronics/tv repair shop...........

I don't know if you can get the same stuff today.... but we used to use "Blue Shower" (a tuner cleaner) to capture flys.

When a particular specimin would venture into the shop, a quick squirt would know the fly out, where the fly could then be saddled, and using a "penguin" (a heat gun used to find faulty components) we would warm the fly up and attempt to take off. Depending on what we used to saddle the fly, we would either teather with a string or attach a small item or streamer - some days were SLOW.

Then again, we would also use "freeze spray" to freeze ants. After lunch, someone would drop a french fry and wait for the diners to gather. After the fry was completely covered with ants, a cap full of freeze spary would be dropped on the pileup and the ants did not have time to scatter before they shattered.

N8CPA

05-23-2004, 12:08 PM

I used to work with a guy who talked about growing up on a farm. He said they would catch horseflies, and stick thin straws or twigs up the hindmost orifice before letting them go. That might explain some of the "flying rods" Art Bell listeners report.

K8ERV

05-23-2004, 01:25 PM

Boy, there are some sick people out there!! I had a friend (?) who liked to cook flys in a microwave oven.

TOM K8ERV

KG6OPR

05-25-2004, 06:40 PM

Tom,
Remember, " Things always happen on a Tappen." Or is that in a Tappen? I heard on Bob & Tom this morning they have found a blue eyed Cicada. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # KG6OPR

05-25-2004, 08:14 PM

For REAL Cicada fun..

Catch a few.. Cut a few pieces of decent diameter thread. Make each peice about 4 - 6 feet long.

Super glue (small dot) an end of each thread to a Cicada.

Take 'em outside and toss BOTH of 'em up in the air. When they fly.. they go opposite directions. When they reach the end of the thread..... You get the idea.

For REAL REAL fun..

Do the same thing to 2 pairs of Cicadas except make the thread about 9 feet long. Then connect the thred together in the middle of the two lines.
Toss all FOUR in the air and watch 'em fly.

HILARIOUS!

Good, clean, Cheap fun!

BAGWORMS.... The bags burn SO well and it roasts those tree killing bugs. We used to have 'em really bad and they hung out on Mimosa trees int he back yard.

Messy little critters. Killed the trees. So we'd put some gasoline in a spray bottle and LIGHTLY.. very very lightly spray the exterior of the bag with 'just a very brief coating to help the burn'.

Then we'd sit back and witha safety match flick and light and toss!

The flamewould ignite the gas on the exterior and flame up the ENTIRE bag rather quickly. The bugs inside would fall BURNING to the ground while we stood around and said 'DIE! BURN! DIE YOU ()(*()*!'

We kept a garden hose running 'just in case' the tree caught or the grass caught. But it never did!

Ahh FLAMING BAGWORMS!!!!!

DiE!! DIE!!

K3FT

KG6OPR

05-25-2004, 08:45 PM

K3FT,
Yer Killing man, Bustin' a Gut!
# # # # # # # # KG6OPR http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

k6pme

05-25-2004, 09:37 PM

Shame on all you big bad meanie's for picking on all those poor defenseless BUGS! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

K9STH

05-25-2004, 11:35 PM

You realize that well over 90 percent of the "animals" on the "protected" list (the list of things we are not supposed to eliminate) are insects!

Now, just what do you do when you see a protected animal eating a protected plant? Or, when you see a protected animal attacking another protected animal?

Then, again, the spotted owl really likes to make nests in WalMart signs!

Theodore Roosevelt referred to the bald eagle as a "dandified buzzard"!

Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey as the national bird since it was much more beneficial to man than the bald eagle!

When they were expanding the Kitt Peak Astronomical Observatory (near Tucson, Arizona) all of the "greenies" said that a certain species of red squirrel had to be protected. It turned out that the species actually prospered due to the construction and the only ones that were harmed (3 killed) were killed by the "greenies" trying to trap them!

The shrimp fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico at first fought the oil drilling platforms. Then, they discovered that the shrimp "flocked" to those platforms, especially at night. In fact, the shrimp that were around the platforms were generally larger, and of better quality, then what were usually caught in the same area.

In this part of Texas, the cicadas are around just about every year! Some years worse than others and they make their noise all night long! What are really the problem are crickets. Every few years the sidewalks in downtown Dallas (and lots of other places as well) will be completely covered. One cannot walk very far without "crunching" at least a few hundred. They stay around for a week, or two, and then just seem to disappear.

Glen, K9STH