Bad news for all East Coast riders

[Richard230]

An article in my newspaper today, published by the Associated Press, says that trillions of cicadas, called Brood X, are ready to emerge from their underground homes after hiding out for the past 17 years. This brood is said to be one of the largest and most noticeable ever seen. They will emerge within days, or a couple of weeks at most, and will be flying around in 15 states from Indiana to Georgia to New York. They are already coming out in mass numbers in Tennessee and North Carolina. Let the bug smashing and cleaning begin.

I must say that I sure am glad that we don't have those suckers on the West Coast. They sound really nasty!

[steve n rose]

Richard, you should try the cane beetles over here in the northern states, 1 splat and you can't see out your visor.

[notacop]

I've seen grasshopper hordes , just where I can't remember though. The roadway was thick with squashed bugs from the trucks passing through.
I imagine the cicadas could cause the same mess. Might be as slippery as deer guts on a door knob?

[TheMeteor]

I recall the last time the brood woke up. My wife and I went to Princeton, where there are many old growth trees, and they were everywhere. Crawling up and down tree trunks.

I also recall going for a ride just north of where we live and the traffic was stop and go. Cicadas were buzzing around everywhere. We took off slowly from a stoplight and two cicadas were flying right next to us. Like wingmen - at the same speed and within inches of our helmets. My wife was on back screaming up a storm like they were going to attack us. Good times.

[IanA]

It's all a bit biblical, isn't it? Fires, floods, the plague19, and now the Locusts (sorta)
Time to repent? or buy another bike...

[N4HHE]

I rode through a swarm of something a couple days ago in AL/TN. Pelting helmet and felt through my gloves and relatively thick Cortech jacket sleeves. Over in an instant. No big bug splats on windshield or face shield but did leave a lot of little smears. Big bugs got bruised but not crushed at about 45 MPH.

Is not my experience that locusts/cicadas swarm like this but in the movies. But some big bug certainly was swarming that day.

[TheMeteor]

https://patch.com/new-jersey/princet...-expected-soon

They're here.....

[Richard230]

And now there are reports of a "gas crisis" in some areas of the Southeast due to the shutdown of the big interstate fuel transportation line. Sort of like a mini-1970's gas crisis, with car drivers panicking and sucking every gallon out of gas stations - leaving to even more panic. At some stations gas prices have soared to $7 a gallon according to this morning's news reports. I guess if you run out of gas and can't drive or ride for a while you will not be hitting as many cicadas, so that might be a plus. Or maybe not.

[N4HHE]

Most gas stations near me are out of fuel. Prices have not changed but what does it matter if the pumps are off?

[PhotoAl]

Have seen some gas station out of gas but since I bout a BoltEV in January I just hummmm right on by I'm saving my gas for my motorcycle. All it takes is a rumor of a crisis and everyone running to fill their gas tank or gas can or garbage bag with gasoline only makes it worse. I actually know someone who witnessed a person putting gas into a garbage bag!!!! Hummm I need to get a garage bag and put a gas can inside and take my BoltEV to the gas station and "fill it up".

I hit a big but a couple of weeks ago - seemed like it was the size of a small bird. Maybe a giant moth. When I was a kid I played with the cicada skins that were always around under the trees. I never paid attention to them or the noise until I was older. Some summers it was almost deafening.

[Richard230]

I hear that the fuel line is up and running again. But gas station panic continues. It will take a while for ICE vehicle owners to calm down and for prices to drop back again. But I bet they won't drop as far down to their previous levels. And then we have the conflict in the Middle East. That has the potential for another gas crisis and price hike.

[N4HHE]

In 4 short months we went from being a net petroleum exporter back to being an importer. And prices up $1/gallon.

[Richard230]

In 4 short months we went from being a net petroleum exporter back to being an importer. And prices up $1/gallon.

It is funny how stuff like that can happen so suddenly. You know what they say: "Never let a crisis go to waste."

[TheMeteor]

I is reported Colonial paid the Russian hackers $5M ransom. Good money if you can make work.

[Richard230]

I heard that the Russians were going to help the U.S. track down the hackers. Anyone want to bet that as soon as Putin gets a cut of the action that they will never be found and brought to justice?

[Sundog52]

https://patch.com/new-jersey/princet...-expected-soon

They're here.....

Without a doubt....here is proof.....picture taken on my crepe myrtle of a molting:

[Richard230]

Without a doubt....here is proof.....picture taken on my crepe myrtle of a molting:

That is a nasty looking bug. It's shell looks hard too. You wouldn't want one of those things hitting you without all of your riding gear on.

[N4HHE]

That is a nasty looking bug. It's shell looks hard too. You wouldn't want one of those things hitting you without all of your riding gear on.

That is the cicada's hibernating skin. That cicada has already shed the skin. It can't fly in that shell, in that shell it is slow and easy to catch between forefinger and thumb.

Shortly after they have shed the skin they are about 1/2" diameter and 2" long not including wings.

Thousands of those things can be deafening at dusk.

Pretty common everywhere I have lived.

Often joke we need to convince rednecks the cicada is an aphrodisiac. Outlaw eating them. Claim to be "better than weed". That should make them extinct in 20 years, both rednecks and cicadas.