Cicada Hunt 2013: Equipment and Process

The Brood II cicada (otherwise known as the 17-year cicada) swarm/invasion promised for this spring is in full tilt here in Virginia. E is fully engaged in his role as hunter and entymologist. 

 The daily cicada hunt commences every morning after breakfast after the cicadas have crawled from the ground. By the time the sun has come out they have usually attached themselves to a leaf or branch or trunk and started removing themselves from their hard shells. (I need to get a photo of that.) Once out, they dry their wings and bodies in the morning sun and then fly away. Sometimes in the afternoon we can still find one or two. 

E is always ready with his grabber and specimen container, which once held my brown sugar. The grabber was E's souvenir choice at a Smithsonian museum in December and he has figured out more uses than he can count. My dried onion container (below) has also been commandeered for the operation.

This morning the twins grabbed and contained twenty. Yesterday it was just ten. I always require them to turn them loose by lunch, mainly because I need to know when they'll be kicked out of the house.

A has been making this funny, smirky face in photos lately. It's a sort of crooked half-smile and I can't get myself to criticize it because I know she won't do it forever and I'm not eager to speed the inevitable process of A becoming self-concious in photos. (We girls are so hard on ourselves.) 

In other buggy news, almost daily we spot one of these beautiful leaf-looking moths first thing in the morning. The lovely spring green makes them seem more beautiful than other moths that normally make us uncomfortable. The perspective is off here--that moth is about the size of A's hand.

Note to self: bug invasions/swarms would make the perfect science project for kids to set up. Already E (who is only five) has already asked me some awesome questions that could frame data inspection like "what time is the best time to catch lots of cicadas" and "how long does it take for them to dry out".