Sounds of Summer: Semi (Cicadas)

SandChigger · Post by **SandChigger** » 09 Aug 2008 23:55

I noticed a few weeks back that someone had started a thread over on DumbNovels complaining about the cicadas and the noise they make. (Actually, in proper Southern Ohioan, they're called locusts. Never mind that that is incredibly wrong...we also call bell peppers mangoes where I live. Go figure.) Anyway, they're called semi over here and there are more varieties than we have back home (at least in Ohio). They just got tuned up and going really good in the last week or so, and a particularly genki (healthy, energetic) one out in the yarden just now reminded me that I've been meaning to post this for a while.

I really like the sound of them, myself. Sure, they're a PITA if they land on a window or door screen and start belting it out, but most of the time they're just part of the ambient sound of summer over here, the "BGM" as they say.

I'm not sure how many different kinds there are, but I recognize four here in my neighborhood: the abura-zemi (probably closest to what we have back home), the minmin-zemi, the tsukutsuku-boushi, and the higurashi (my personal favorite, that only sing in the evening or early morning).

I've found some sound files, in case anyone's interested in what they sound like:

http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~sibutaka/nat ... zemi_l.mp3

http://www.japonismo.com/archivos/minminzemi.mp3

http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~sibutaka/nat ... _8_220.wav

http://ynishioka.net/essay.files/higurashi.mp3

Not a type of cicada, but one quintessentially summer sound over here is that of the suzumushi, or "bell bug". They look like a variety of brown cricket and people raise them in plastic containers. I kept some for about four years, until I didn't keep the dirt in the container moist enough one winter and none of the eggs hatched the following spring.

Here's what they sound like:

http://www.big.jp/~eizo/blog/archives/0 ... umushi.mp3

I guess liking bugs comes with the territory...knowharramean?

Centurion988 · Post by **Centurion988** » 10 Aug 2008 00:58

Outstanding post SandChigger. Like the background info. I do know that cicadas vary by region but I was stunned by the difference in "song". The ones I heard on the east coast had a steady tone to their song. The physical appearance was shocking, big green bug with huge red eyes. Scary!

Now that I know how harmless they are to us, I wish I had been more curious at the time. They don't hang around much!

SandChigger · Post by **SandChigger** » 10 Aug 2008 08:47

One of my colleagues is from Texas and he was saying the other day that they don't have them back home.

Guess I should have a look and see what their distribution is, how far south and north, etc. Do they have them in Europe? I can't recall ever hearing anyone mention them there....

mstrand · Post by **mstrand** » 10 Aug 2008 09:51

We had the 17 year infestation last year here in Chicago. You can't walk without stepping on one, drive without hitting one, and man are millions of them in small area's LOUD.

GamePlayer · Post by **GamePlayer** » 10 Aug 2008 12:36

I know a fella that works in sound design who would probably have an orgasm listening to this

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » 10 Aug 2008 12:52

I love those loud screechy bugs.. they're cute, you can catch one and tie a string to it and fly it like a kite. We don't get the massive infestation like up north, but every year a few hatch out.

Mahnmut · Post by **Mahnmut** » 10 Aug 2008 13:21

you can catch one and tie a string to it and fly it like a kite.

lol what a great mental picture you gave me with that.

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » 10 Aug 2008 13:59

I forgot to mention that everyone I know also refers to them as locusts, even though we know better.

Eyes High · Post by **Eyes High** » 10 Aug 2008 14:22

love the nightly sound of a summer serenade by our little friend in the woods. Just as long as they stay in the woods.

SandChigger · Post by **SandChigger** » 10 Aug 2008 21:45

Mandy, we used to do that to June bugs.

I love it when a cicada gets spooked and decides to fly elsewhere. They bitch and kvetch the whole time they're in the air, couldn't fly in a straight line to save their souls. I like to think of them as "infrequent flyers".

"OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD WHY AM I DOING THIS WHERE'S A TREE OH GOD OR JUST A BUSH QUICK GET ME DOWN DOWN DOWN!!!!"

Centurion988 · Post by **Centurion988** » 10 Aug 2008 22:03

Hey, I used to play with June Bugs as a kid in Virginia. Now those little guys were pretty. A magnificent iridescent green. Just beautiful.

SandChigger · Post by **SandChigger** » 10 Aug 2008 22:12

Bugs. Love 'em!

Centurion988 · Post by **Centurion988** » 10 Aug 2008 22:55

Who needs pokemon? We had the real deal. SandChigger I wish I could take you back to my boyhood home in Virginia back in the 1960's. All kinds of flying insects, ground crawlers, spiders of all sizes and two kinds of praying mantis.

During the long summers, the neighborhood kids would collect their favorite insects and we would show them off. I always had the coolest moths around the house and they're easy to catch during the daytime.

At night, Lightning Bugs! Imagine every summertime outdoor night party with thousands of flashing insects everywhere you look! All us kids would run around trying to catch the bugs while the adults would laugh holding glasses of tall, cool drinks. Gotta go inside and wash you hands or you won't get any homemade ice cream at 10 pm!

SandChigger we were poor, ordinary people. But those summer nights were Enchanted! All the money in the world couldn't buy the kind of happiness I lived back when Kennedy was president. If I had a time machine I would take you back with me and introduce you to my grandma. She made the best ice cream in the whole neighborhood.

SandChigger · Post by **SandChigger** » 11 Aug 2008 02:20

Dude, you been reading my mind? 1960s southern Ohio, here. Grew up in a little village strung along the strip of land between the banks of the Ohio and a long wooded hill (called...The Hill

) that ran, with just a few gaps both natural and manmade, from the town north of us right up to the river just south of the village (where they built the bridge to Kentucky). Our house was closer to the hill and there were ALWAYS critters. (The neighbor who still puts a garden in down on the flat ground near the creek—between us and the hill—complains even today about the deer that come down and eat his veggies. My aunt lives up over on the other side of the hill and they get a regular menagerie coming in all year long.)

Fireflies, mantises (I've got a whole bunch in the yard here this year, too), even a luna moth or two over the years...there was always something crawling or flittering around. Oh yeah, and the hummers in my mother's rose moss beds. (It was my mother that taught us to put June bugs on a string, btw; something she did as a kid back in the '30s.)

Ah well...another age and world away, huh.

A Thing of Eternity · Post by **A Thing of Eternity** » 11 Aug 2008 11:12

We don't get many cool bugs up here, too cold. I did find a three inch caterpillar with a big rhinoceros horn on it's ass when I was little. Dragon flys and ants were the mainstays of my bug loving childhood, not very exotic.

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » 11 Aug 2008 13:06

I was bug crazy last year, took some nice pictures. It's been too hot this year so far, plus I've had to stay close to my sickly grandma.

OH yeah, I love June bugs! They've got the creepiest legs.

orald · Post by **orald** » 11 Aug 2008 13:42

No self pics as of yet. We grow impatient.

Ahh...collecting bugs in a jar...some people grow out of it, some people don't(and are called entomologists by mental care experts, I've heard).

Why look at insects when you've got so many cute, furry critters instead? And they're tastier too!

Centurion988 · Post by **Centurion988** » 11 Aug 2008 19:59

SandChigger wrote:

Dude, you been reading my mind? 1960s southern Ohio, here. Grew up in a little village strung along the strip of land between the banks of the Ohio and a long wooded hill (called...The Hill ) that ran, with just a few gaps both natural and manmade, from the town north of us right up to the river just south of the village (where they built the bridge to Kentucky). Our house was closer to the hill and there were ALWAYS critters. (The neighbor who still puts a garden in down on the flat ground near the creek—between us and the hill—complains even today about the deer that come down and eat his veggies. My aunt lives up over on the other side of the hill and they get a regular menagerie coming in all year long.)

Fireflies, mantises (I've got a whole bunch in the yard here this year, too), even a luna moth or two over the years...there was always something crawling or flittering around. Oh yeah, and the hummers in my mother's rose moss beds. (It was my mother that taught us to put June bugs on a string, btw; something she did as a kid back in the '30s.)

Ah well...another age and world away, huh.

And yet the magic of being a kid and living in a world where everything's Alive! Watch where you step, mind where you sit, lol! That magic is still with me. As I type this I feel like I've crossed a threshold and all my old friends are showing me what they just caught. I can see my huge backyard, deep grass everywhere you look, and my dad saying "be sure to cut the grass tomorrow". Sometimes I would catch an insect I'd never seen before. My mom would talk me out of keeping anything in the house. Later I would describe what I'd let go to the older kids in the neighborhood.

Seems to me that kids today don't have that direct connection to the natural world that we did. Now I go outside at night, don't see anything flying around, can't see the stars either. And ya don't hear anything. The nights were full of sounds as a kid, now - nothing. Could be just that I've moved to the pacific-northwest where there are few insects or maybe its me. I don't know what to listen for up here. But as long as I have my memories, I can go back to my old neighborhood and re-live those noisy summer nights when the air was alive.

SandChigger · Post by **SandChigger** » 11 Aug 2008 22:52

That's one thing nice about going back to Ohio in mid- or late-summer, when I get the chance. The house has central air but I like to open up all the windows and put a fan in one and let it just blow and air the place out.

The last few years, the fireflies have been coming back. Not as many as when I was a kid, but they're there. The first time I saw one, a few years back, I thought I was imagining it or something was wrong with my eyes!

There're still all kinds of things making noise in the night there. Crickets and what we called katydids. And even the manmade sounds are nostalgic: a few cars and trucks going by on the highway, an occasional freight train rumbling through down on the tracks by the river, and the horns of boats going up and down it. Years ago there used to be a steamboat with a calliope would come through summers. I used to love lying in bed listening to it play well into the night, no doubt while there were parties going on where it was docked over on the Kentucky side. I'd like to hear that again someday.

orald · Post by **orald** » 12 Aug 2008 08:41

Oh, the scorpions rushing across the floor here are really nostalgic too...

Bah, no wonder I don't get any scorp's anymore- all these 10 inch geckoes I find instead must be eating them...well, I guess that's the up side to it.

Mandy · Post by **Mandy** » 12 Aug 2008 19:34

There is no shortage of noisy bugs down here in Floridaland. I hate it when a cricket gets in the house and I can't find it.

Centurion988 · Post by **Centurion988** » 13 Aug 2008 01:25

Big shout out to orald and Mandy. There is no place like Seattle, at least when it comes to bugs. There are none! This is the only place I've ever lived where on a summer night you can open doors, windows and nothing flies in. At first it was ok, now it seems creepy. I keep the TV on all night just have a little noise to help me sleep. There are times when it feels like I'm in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

Good thing I got this computer for Christmas, its changed my life, I feel like I'm back on earth again, lol!

trang · Post by **trang** » 13 Aug 2008 08:21

The reality answer is we have all those types and some more here in KC, Missouri. The rain has been on the heavy side this year so the music makers are a plenty.

The non-reality question, ever wonder what the summer time bug musicians are like in and around Chernobyl ?

Two plus decades out from that event, I would think mother nature has had some time to produce some wonderous things?

Personally I think I would expect no less that to walk into the woods and see a 40 piece orchestra of six foot tall bugs of various types, sitting in chairs, with their own hand made instruments, music on high.

Might have to get out the old BFG and go in for a look!

Be Well,
Trang

orald · Post by **orald** » 13 Aug 2008 10:41

trang wrote:The non-reality question, ever wonder what the summer time bug musicians are like in and around Chernobyl ?

Two plus decades out from that event, I would think mother nature has had some time to produce some wonderous things?

Personally I think I would expect no less that to walk into the woods and see a 40 piece orchestra of six foot tall bugs of various types, sitting in chairs, with their own hand made instruments, music on high.

Might have to get out the old BFG and go in for a look!

Be Well,
Trang

...Or just ask her if she saw any.

Centurion988 · Post by **Centurion988** » 13 Aug 2008 20:57

Well trang and orald, I am Now ready to count my blessings!