YIKES!
Dear Cicada Mania, My family just got back from a weekend camping trip. I stayed home to watch the animals, teach classes and do church (I am a minister). Anyway, while camping, my family had a run-in with an odd sounding insect. The description they gave me was a large fly about 1 inch and a half plus long. (sounds like a cicada to me) Anyway, it landed on my son and bit through his shirt and took out a small, about 1/16 of an inch round, piece of flesh, then flew to my daughter and bit her the same way. It than attacked my daughter-in-law and my wife. They all decided that animal rights issues were to be put aside, (we are animal rights people) and they attacked back. Once my wife began swinger her purse at it, it took off. The bites did not swell up as normal insect bites sometimes do. There are just these tiny chucks of skin missing. My question, do you know if cicadas bite? And, if not, any idea what kind of insect this was? [Yikes, That was no cicada, if fact we don’t know what it was!]
Thanks,
Mike Shaw (8/23)
Sweet Dreams
Hi, I really like the web site. I told my daughter as a book report for me to look up Cicada for a “book” report. Frustrated about the spelling she gave up, Now here I am making sure we are all not crazy imagining the little dead bodies and loud humming outside our windows. You’d hardly realize I have two little girls by the way they love bugs. Little girls are supposed to be afraid of them, especially when they are as scary as those little shells they leave behind. The first time they discovered them they left them on my pillow case for me to see after I got home from school. The only thing was I go to night school, I get home at about 10:30. I was so tired I just pulled the covers down and plopped right in. About 2 or 3 in the morning I wake up to this crunchy stuff in the bed, it’s all over the place. Like any other unsuspecting mom, my kids have been eating crackers in my bed. In the morning my 7 year old says ‘ Did you find the Cicada shells we left on your pillow last night?’. The only thing I could say was… Yep…. wishing at that time they did eat crackers in my bed! There are more funny stories about bugs and how the girls love to torcher their mom, hope you found this one amusing. I can laugh now….it’s not very humorous while I’m screaming at the top of my lungs… Ah the joys of childhood! Thanks for listening…
Mary Ellen Johnson (8/17)