Locusts...cicadas...whatever you want to call them!

We are still unpacking....the joys of once again moving. After one box is done we just throw them outside on the lawn. So every few days I pick them up, put them in the back of the truck and haul them off to the school trash. It is only 2 blocks away from our house and school is out so I figure they don't care much. Well, this is what I found the other day! Once again, it brought back childhood memories. I remember finding these shells on Grandma and Grandpa's trees all the time. I always thought that they were the shells of locusts. Well, I wanted to make sure since I'm blogging this and I'm glad that I did because I have been wrong all these years. This is a cicada shell! I am not a bug person at all....not at all! I only like lightening bugs and sometimes I can handle ladybugs. But this fascinated me. I don't like snakes either but it always amazed me how certain bugs and reptiles shed their skin. Why? So as I am looking up things about cicadas I found out that they are kinda like caterpillars....except they don't turn into pretty butterflies. These cicadas just turn into ugly winged cicadas. So they look pretty much the same except some have more vibrant colors and now has wings. They live most of their lives underground and then finally emerge to molt, or shed their skin, and off they go.

Gross looking things but I have to admit it was fun looking this stuff up. I found out that most people around here call them locusts after all. Another memory I have of them growing up is the sounds the male ones make. We moved to Oklahoma from Washington when I was 9 years old. I'll never forget those first nights in Oklahoma "trying" to get to sleep. Those "locust" were SO VERY loud! Of course, they are music to my ears now.