>I actually like the cicadas. Yes, they're deafening, but they're only around for a few weeks every 17 years. They don't bite and are no threat to man. To me they are one of nature's cool mysteries. Millions of them emerge, create the next generation, make their racket, and die on exactly the same cycle, give or take a few days. Even the cycle itself is cool. 17 is a prime number, as is 13, the cycle of another type of cicada. This keeps their most common predators, who have a life cycle of 3-5 years, perpetually off balance. By the time the next generation of cicadas comes around the last generation of predators to remember them is long gone. It's enough to make you think this isn't all happening by accident.

Last year (or the... forelast? is there such a word in English?) was their year in Virginia, but I didn't get to hear them, probably living in the wrong area. I saw a guy on TV making a meal out of them. He said something to the effect "you can't get bored by this dish, because you can eat it only every 13 years".

Last week, however, I heard them here in Florida and they are really loud. First I thought a ball bearing in someone's AC is dying a horrible death, then I thought it may be frogs distorted by echo, and then I was told it's cicadas. I saw a few around the staircase, they are quite big.