The Brood X cicadas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_X), the largest in area and numbers of the 17-year "periodical" cicadas. were last seen here in 2004. By the literally billions they crawled up out of the ground in spring, each leaving a burrow as big around as your finger.
It stretches from Illinois to New York to Georgia. to a good X population of 17 Year Cicadas Arrived Here in 2004 They are the biggest of them all.
They’ve all been eaten or squashed. A few paltry millions have reproduced, leaving cast-off wings and skeletons on the ground, in a nice, nitrogen-rich mulch.
Afterwards plants are practically springing out of this recharged ground. This big pulse of fertility (nitrogen from their bodies and shells, birds too fat to fly, cats and dogs, raccoons and foxes stuffed too, refusing to eat another bite).
In addition, all of the bugs and berries and other prey that didn’t get eaten (everything from butterflies to aphids), because the big clumsy slow-flying cicadas were available by the billions, have thrived and reproduced more thickly than before.
I suspect that a kind of secondary effect of the cicadas has been heavier mortality of birds. The neighborhood cats have been knocking them off, because they are too well fed and sluggish to escape.
As of October, neighbors were reporting heavier than usual predation of squashes by too-plentiful squirrels.
Then there is the aerating services they have provided. The normally heavy clay soiled is lighter and airier than usual.
Needless to say, we have filled our freezer with them. In Bangkok we learned to eat them, three at a time, on bamboo skewers. Not! But you have to admire people who do eat them.
