Facts about the Brood XIX Cicadas

By now, if you are living in one of the affected areas, you have likely heard about the Brood XIX Cicadas. You have likely already heard that these miracles of nature have lived underground in a nymph stage for the past 13 years, getting their sustenance from the xylem of trees, tunneled to the surface, molted from their shell, and then started flying around like nuts. In this article, several facts about these creatures will be presented. The original article title was going to be "Fun Facts about Cicadas" but I can assure you, there's nothing fun about them.

• Periodical cicadas are found only in the United States east of the Great Plains.

• The transparent wings of cicadas are said to filter out ultraviolet light. People who have placed a cicada wing on their skin prior to exposure to the sun have noticed that they do not tan under the wing.

• Females lay 400 to 600 eggs in as many as 40 to 50 different nests before they die.

• It would take 175 Million Cicadas laid end to end to reach from Miami to Seattle. You likely have that many in your front yard.

• If your Astrological Sign is Taurus, you have that in common with cicadas.

• Some scientists believe Cicadas caused the dinosaurs to go extinct.

• For a period of three weeks, the cicada economy is the 12th largest GDP in the world.

• It's not a good idea to think about cicadas while eating onion rings.

• The breed of cicadas that live in Hell come out every year.

• When taking a photo of a cicada, be sure to use the built in "Red Eye Reducer" feature available on most current models of digital camera.

• Waldo is hiding from cicadas.

• How many cicadas does it take to change a light bulb? If you have a jocular punchline to this, please send your answer to editor@broodxixcicadafacts.info and your answer might appear in print.

• There's not someone using a weed eater outside your bedroom window. That's the cicada mating call deafening you.

• The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Cicadas out. It failed miserably.

• The cicadas are specifically timed to come up out of the ground at about the same time you'd want to start swimming in your outdoor pool.

• <-- This dot represents a cicada eyeball.