Anyone else preparing for the brood of cicadas invading the midwest?

[GrandpaKevin]

The wife and I were out on the trails yesterday on our E-bikes and the sound of the Cicada's was deafening.

It's their 17 year coming out party and they are ready to trash our cars.

I've gone 80's old school and put a front mask protector on my Ram and ordered one for my wife's car.

For those of you driving to the Mopar Nationals in Ohio this year you've been warned, these bugs will make a nasty mess out of the front of your car and even stain and/or damage the paint.

[JH27N0B]

Their emergence must be fairly regional.  We had our last 17 year cicada summer in 2007, therefore the Chicago area isn't due for the next one until 2024.

[anlauto]

 

[JH27N0B]

As a kid, my favorite summer was the summer of '73, when we had a 17 year cicada outbreak.
Us kids had a blast that summer playing with them and killing them.  They aren't menacing, they don't bite or sting.  They live underground for 17 years feeding off sap from roots.  They emerge after 17 years, hatch out of their skin, and then fly around making noise and trying to mate.  Then after the females insert the eggs into tree branches, they die.
There are annual cicadas around here every summer.  In smaller numbers.  They are a bit larger and green with black eyes.  The annual cicadas are also louder.

[GrandpaKevin]

They number in the millions and can make a real mess of the front of your car....

[JH27N0B]

I don't remember ever hitting too many with my car.  The splattered bugs in that picture look pretty small.  Cicadas are 3 or 4 inches long by around a 1/2 inch wide.  They mainly fly between trees so their flightpath is typically higher than road traffic.  Though Ohio is hilly and it's flat here, maybe flying from trees higher in a hill to trees lower down the hill with a road in between would put them more in traffics path there. 

[73440]

https://www.cicadamania.com/where.html#yourtown

Or as we always called them locusts

[js27]

I just took this photo last week. It was at the top of the door going into my work. It is the only one I have seen here in SC this year.
JS27

[gzig5]

Not going to be a problem around here.  They should all drown.