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WASHINGTON - Insects that emerge every 17 years in the eastern United States provide valuable nutrients to forest ecosystems when they die, an ecologist says. The Brood X cicadas emerge from their burrows on a regular cycle, sing to attract a mate and lay eggs before dying on the forest floor. Cicadas cling to a leaf after crawling their way above ground(AP Photo) Last spring, the insects swarmed forests, raising concerns about their effects on the ecosystem. Scientists had noticed forests tended to have higher levels of the nutrient nitrogen in their leaves after cicadas emerged and tree growth tended...

Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley. We in the eastern United States are in the middle of a great mystery. Every seventeen years the cicada nymphs by the millions tunnel out of the ground, climb trees, shed their exoskeletons, and fly off as adults to mate—only to die within forty-eight hours. The result is cicadas all over the place and a constant whirring noise in the trees: It has been compared to subway trains, jackhammers, and flying saucers from an old movie. It is a fascinating display of God’s creative work. And at least one...

Fifty-one years ago on a bright spring day in a sun-dappled grove, a pair of young lovers rose from slumber, spread their wings and burst into song. For the next month or so, Sam and Cindy spent their days and nights engaging in the ritualistic mating-cycle practiced by their progenitors for centuries. At the end of their courtship, Cindy Cicada gave birth to 500 or so offspring thus giving new meaning to the phrase, "making beautiful music together." These two would be the first of the Baby Boomer cicadas to reproduce. As they prepared to hand over the future to...

FACT: Cicadas are vicious killers. FACT: Cicadas prey on innocent children and pets. FACT: Cicadas are seething with deadly venom and flesh-eating bacteria. FACT: This year Cicadas will kill more people than snakes, spiders, scorpions, and sharks combined! Learn the truth at http://www.cicadaville.com/index.htm

U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) is chased by a cicada as he walks up the steps to Air Force One outside of Washington at Andrews Air Force Base, May 25, 2004. The nation's capital is swamped with the once every seventeen-year appearance of the cicadas. REUTERS/Larry Downing

John F'ing Kerry today blamed George W. Bush for the recent Cicada invasion. Kerry Stated: "He knew they were coming and he did nothing. If I were Commander in Chief, I could have and would have stopped the invasion. I actually voted for the invasion before I voted against it." The last FOUR times the Cicadas appeared, there was a republican in The White House. The last time the Cicadas appeared when a democrat was in the White House was in 1936. Proof that it is the Republicans that caused the Cicadas, and they bring them out when convenient to...

Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff said that the periodical cicada will soon emerge over much of Pennsylvania after 17 years underground. "Around May 20, Brood 10 of the periodical cicada will emerge across the eastern two-thirds of the Commonwealth," said Wolff. "In areas of heavy emergence, the total weight of cicadas have been as high as 1.5 tons per acre, making it the largest of all the broods." Cicadas in this brood entered the soil as tiny nymphs back in 1987 and have since resided underground, sucking away at tree and shrub roots.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — A man who cooked and ate nearly 30 cicadas sought medical treatment after suffering a strong allergic reaction to the sautéed insects. The man showed up at a Bloomington clinic Thursday covered from head-to-toe in hives, and sheepishly told a doctor he'd caught and eaten the cicadas after sautéing them in butter with crushed garlic and basil. "He said they didn't taste too bad, but his wife didn't care for the aroma," said Dr. Al Ripani, the doctor who treated the man at Promptcare East. The man, who has a history of asthma and shellfish allergies,...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- A man who cooked and ate nearly 30 cicadas sought medical treatment after suffering a strong allergic reaction to the sauteed insects. The man showed up at a Bloomington clinic Thursday covered from head-to-toe in hives, and sheepishly told a doctor he'd caught and ate the cicadas after sauteing them in butter with crushed garlic and basil. "He said they didn't taste too bad, but his wife didn't care for the aroma," said Dr. Al Ripani, the doctor who treated the man at Promptcare East. The man, who has a history of asthma and shellfish allergies,...

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What Does John Kerry Have in Common with the Cicadas? The Secret is Revealed in the RNC's Latest Web Video 5/14/2004 12:38:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk, Political Reporter Contact: Christine Iverson of the Republican National Committee, 202-863-8614 WASHINGTON, May 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The RNC today sent a new web video to more than 700,000 Team Leaders, pointing out that John Kerry has a few things in common with the cicadas. "Nature is a consummate teacher and in this case the lesson is-no matter how hard they try, a cicada will always be a cicada and John Kerry...

<p>May 15, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - The Republican Party yesterday tried to bug Democrat John Kerry with a flutter of insect humor - using a new Web video that morphs him into a cicada, the bug now plaguing much of the East. "Every 17 years, cicadas emerge, morph out of their shell and change their appearance . . . Like a cicada, Sen. Kerry would like to shed his Senate career and morph into a fiscal conservative, a centrist Democrat," the video begins.</p>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First there was the girl who fell off her bike fleeing a flying cicada. Then a boy trying to swat a cicada out of the air with a baseball bat instead hit his friend in the nose. The final straw came when another child hurt his hand trying to squish a cicada under a car's tires. Dr. Ray Baker of Cincinnati Children's Hospital was convinced -- cicadas can be a safety hazard to children. Starting this week and lasting into June, billions and possibly even trillions of cicadas will emerge across much of the eastern half of...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Christine Iverson202-863-8614 Click on "Send to Friends" link above to send video to friends. Washington, DC—The RNC today sent a new web video to more than 700,000 Team Leaders, pointing out that John Kerry has a few things in common with the cicadas. “Nature is a consummate teacher and in this case the lesson is-no matter how hard they try, a cicada will always be a cicada and John Kerry will always be John Kerry,” said RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke. Script: "Cicadas" NARRATOR: "Every 17 years, cicadas emerge, morph out of their shell, and change...

Area retailers are hoping to turn cicadas into big bug business as the red-eyed insects climb their way out of the ground from their 17-year hibernation. The small, black bugs, which do not sting or bite and are harmless to humans, are digging out of the dirt this week to begin a frantic mating ritual that will end with millions of cicada carcasses littering yards, sidewalks and streets. As many as 1.5 million Brood X cicadas will cover each acre as the insects get into full swing of their infestation, which will last until July, according to entomologists. The harmless...

Trillions of cicadas to plague US Trillions of cicadas in the eastern US are waking from a 17-year slumber in what scientists expect to be the largest insect emergence on Earth. The winged insects, which have been living underground and feeding on tree roots, will engage in a frenetic mating cycle before dying en masse in June. The bugs are harmless, but their mating call is very noisy. They are expected to swarm over 14 eastern states including Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, New York and Ohio. There are more than a dozen separate broods of 17-year cicadas, along with several 13-year...

As if George Bush did not have enough on his plate, Brood X has started to take over his capital. With a mixture of fear and fascination, Washingtonians prepared for an infestation of biblical proportions as the first of a swarm of billions of cicadas emerged after 17 years underground. Red-eyed, black skinned and up to five centimetres long, the first cicadas this week wriggled out of holes in the ground where they have been waiting since the height of Ronald Reagan's presidency. Within days, large parts of the city and areas across the eastern United States will be blanketed...

Low-Fat, High-Protein Cicadas: New Health Snack? John Roach for National Geographic News May 3, 2004 High-protein, low-carbohydrate diet fanatics take note: The billions of cicadas set to emerge from the ground en masse later this month are a healthy alternative to that bacon double-cheeseburger without the bun. "They're high in protein, low in fat, no carbs," said Gene Kritsky, a biologist and cicada expert at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio. "They're quite nutritious, a good set of vitamins." The largest group of periodical cicadas, known as Brood X, will crawl out of the ground soon and...

..........The 1987 appearance of Brood X began about May 15. By the first week in June, the males were in full song. Noise levels in Milford, Rodgers Forge and Roland Park were measured at 80 decibels in the afternoon. That's nearly as loud as a heavy truck passing on the Beltway and well above the state's residential limit of 65 decibels. Pedestrians complained that females flew like drunken sailors, bouncing off walls and windshields, and dropping onto car seats and hairdos. Homeowners covered lawn furniture. Some draped vulnerable saplings in cheesecloth. This year, panicked gardeners have been calling Carrie Engel,...

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - After 17 years of relative quiet, Mother Nature is bringing the noise. Periodical cicadas, a species of the grasshopper-like insects best known for the scratching, screeching "singing" of the males, will emerge this May, filling forests in more than a dozen states. Almost as abruptly as they arrive, they'll disappear underground for another 17 years. "Why do certain insects take only one year to develop, and others take two or three? It's just part of their genetic programming," said Greg Hoover, senior extension entomologist for Penn State University. There are at least 13 broods of 17-year...