The...Horde? Swarm?

[hwango]

I keep thinking that it's raining. The clicking sounds against the window are more like that of light sleet or icy snow, but with this heat that's obviously impossible. But it's not rain, either. It's dozens (if not hundreds) of little bug ramming themselves against the glass. They don't look like most beetles, nor are they moths - the wings are definitely folded up on the back. Some kind of short, squat little grasshopper relative? They aren't on any of the plants on the porch, so they aren't some ravening blight that will leave the neighborhood totally defoliated, thankfully. But they're definitely eerie if for no other reason than their alarming numbers. I'm not going outside to catch one, I can tell you that for certain.

Comments

[unferth.livejournal.com]

The 13-year cicada brood XIX is swarming further south, but they don't make it this far north.

Fun trivia fact: all long-duration cicada broods are on prime number cycles (13 or 17 years, generally) for sound evolutionary reasons.

I last ran into them in 1987 - and let me tell you, fifth grade is just the right time for a mass insect population burst to be great fun.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Well, these are awfully little to be cicadas anyway, so I don't think I have a lost swarm. They're about the size of a pencil eraser, and I remember cicadas being rather larger than that. Their backs are peaked more, too - cicadas are more flat/rounded. I don't know, their identity will probably remain a mystery. I just hope they're nothing horrible, considering how many of them there are.

[unferth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, from what I remember cicadas are rather more on the order of a thumb-length. Even recalibrating for being 35 rather than 11, that's probably not what's going on.

The internet being what it is, there's a site for this:
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/

I'm not even sure it'd be helpful at all, I just like knowing that there's a site devoted to answering that question.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

After some poking at the internet for a bit, I strongly suspect that they are some variety of leafhopper.

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

we have so many leafhoppers swarming on the windows at night down here in CT, it looks like someone splashed mud on the window... til you realize it's MOVING.
we also have some giant mayfly/troutfly variety this year that seems to be swarming due to the unusually wet weather/ They're freakish looking.

[gunthersdncemix.livejournal.com]

Spoooooky! If you're able to get a pic, preferably safely from behind a window or something, I can send it to my biologist professor peeps. :)

I also like whatsthatbug, but it takes forever to scroll through.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

They do seem to like banging into things, don't they?

[fiveforsilver]

Ew.

At college, we had swarms of those Japanese not-ladybug beetles, and if you were unlucky enough to live in certain places, your dorm room could get infested, which I think happened to a friend of mine. They don't do anything, they just get everywhere.

[hwango.livejournal.com]

The thing about the Japanese beetles is that they're so shiny! Taken in the abstract, they might even be pretty. But I grew up knowing that they were a menace to the plants, and they're solid enough that it's unpleasant to have one crash into you, so they are thoroughly unlikeable. I definitely wouldn't want my room filled with them - that does sound pretty horrible.

[fiveforsilver]

Yeah, one at a time they're not bad, but en masse? I never had an infested room, but I did live in a dorm with a sun-facing entrance (I forget if it was morning or afternoon sun), which apparently they found particularly attractive. So they swarmed the entrance, with its nice sun-warmed stone. We used...other entrances...

[katden.livejournal.com]

Bug population is way way too abundant this year. Frogs near my back doorstep have doubled in size and still haven't cleared out the creepy crawlies. :((

[hwango.livejournal.com]

Order more frogs!