SAYING GOOD-BYE TO OUR OWN 17 YR BROOD II CICADAS

Here Above the Frost Line, we were visited late this spring (2013) by the famous periodical Brood II  Cicadas. In Hayesville, North Carolina there was a great amount of talk and a front page news story. A specific area between Warne and Hayesville reported the loudest calls, sometimes described as "a high pitched electronic sound", " a fire truck siren" or "a security alarm going off."  

My family on Cherry Mountain recognized immediately that the 17 year Brood II Cicadas were back.  It's our third time to come face to face with some of these amazing creatures that live most of their lives underground. They come up, come out, and climb to the tops of the trees they've been living under, "all those years with so much life," to look for a mate and  to lay their eggs.  

Here at the end of June, they have died and their young nymphs are burrowing into the ground under the same trees. We find it sad for them to go.