Cicadas bugs enroute; plan accordingly

Bob - May 2, 2021

https://patch.com/district-columbia/washingtondc/cicadas-swarm-copperheads-snack-its-thing-virginia-dc

Good morning,

These bugs soon to arrive. Much is on the web and these creatures. Rather than link a pest control guide, am posting above news article from a couple of weeks ago because good info in link along with good picture of copperhead snake dining on a cicadas. 

There are reports of this bug used for survival soup. This soup can’t be that much different than cricket gumbo. I prefer sesame soup if and when stuck out in wilderness.

Don’t believe mentioned in article but wasps also dine on cicadas.  So, perhaps, nature provides value.

Again; if in bugs’ habitat, plan accordingly for their arrival

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I am glad I don’t live anywhere near there! That sounds like a nightmare

 

I’ve eaten many a pot of gumbo, of all sorts, but can honestly say I’ve never heard of cricket gumbo.  Sounds so disgusting, I’m not even gonna look it up.  Around here, we use crickets as bait for fish.   🙂

Thankfully we don’t have the huge cicada explosions around here.

 

My grandma’s house had lots of crickets around in her field. You would just walk and there would be crickets jumping everywhere out of your way. 

Used to take my bb gun and try and snipe them!

How do you catch them to use them for bait?

 

I don’t catch them.  Just go to the bait shop & get my container filled.  🙂

Now my chickens on the other hand, could most certainly catch crickets.

 

Good morning Bob,

Thank you for the info on copperheads/cicadas. I watch for how species can migrate due to our climate changing. We don’t have poisonous snakes in Manitoba. I did have to put up with rattlesnakes in the Okanagan. They had to be dodged when hiking. We used to keep a pocket of stones to toss as a check if anything was theire when walking or crossing near tall grass.

I remember reading about how the pythons in Florida could potentially make their way North, via the Mississippi River system and into Canada’s Great Lakes.

Pythons never should have been allowed into the country as “pets.” You don’t see anyone in their country of origin keeping them as a pet.

My Dad told me about a man who used to come to the farm to hunt when he was a child. The man had served in India and was on watch with another soldier. Suddenly a large python dropped out of the tree he was standing beneath, and rapidly coiled around his neck. He had enough breath to yell once and the other soldier came running. The other soldier had to cut the snake off him. The coils were tough to cut and took time to remove.

He survived and told my Dad the story because of his reaction to a garter snake that was sunning itself. He saw the snake, yelled “Reptile!!” at the top of his lungs and shot the snake.

Years later, I came close to re-enacting this story, but in Manitoba, and because of someone’s abandoned “pet” python.

There was an area of bush I used to walk just outside the perimeter of Winnipeg. It was a peaceful walk along the river beneath the trees.

I watched the news one evening after returning home from a walk and saw a abandoned python that was captured in a tree on that path. After that, I strapped my knife onto my belt whenever I walked off the beaten track.

 

Good afternoon Ubique,

That India story is an excellent illustration to avoid being out in the sticks or thorns when alone. There’s a reason I started to carry a long pole.

Even if pythons were prohibited to be imported, enforcement mechanisms are minimal.

Speaking of India, …… vaguely remember reading Rudyard Kipling’s short story “The Jungle Book”. It was this story that introduced me to the mongoose. Contrary to the lore, a big and poisonous snake can kill a mongoose. The mongoose is famous for it’s agility and speed – faster than a snake … and a snake is no slow-poke. A mongoose is like a kangaroo rat, also agile and swift – and faster than a snake with perhaps an exception or 2 like the forest Mamba of Africa.

Copperheads are all over this area.  I talk to the creatures here such as “Snake, get the hell out of here or I call Moses”.

Consider more than a belt knife for snake repellant if entering known snake territory. Of course, with all my talking, the mosquito head net limits my visibility.

After my last snake encounter, I’d have asked you for one of those cigars in the study but instead of a good book or artwork, would need some of that Canadian apple juice that’s fermented and then distilled.

I admit that much of this snake worry is a learned behavior.  The mosquito is more dangerous as per the statistics.

 

 

“or I’ll call Moses”! Haha that made me laugh. I’d love to go hiking with you Bob and hear you say that.

 

Good afternoon Robert,

Also talk to the other creatures here such as Bumble Bees and Honey Bees.

One of ’em probably wanted to be petted.

I said “Don’t bother me, Bee. You got the darn Tuna advertisement contract so be happy with your fortune.”

 

That is probably the funniest thing I have heard in years! Who knew you had such a sense of humor!! haha 

Gonna go tell my wife this now…

 

Good afternoon Bob,

The long pole is a good idea to help shepherd the snakes away. I didn’t know that the mongoose was able to be killed by the snake, nor did I know about forest mambas of Africa. I thought they were only in Australia.

I had never seen a Copperhead until this morning on the weather network. That would be enough to stop me dead in my tracks.  I wouldn’t be near the cicadas if the Copperheads feed on them.

I can imagine that head gear would limit your ability to see clearly. Do you wear leather gaiters to cover the strike zone for these snakes?

I had some to cover my legs over my hiking boots for Egypt. The desert vipers can lunge up to strike.

For your snake encounters, I shall now stock plenty of the Canadian special cider for your exclusive use.

Great Moses reference. He could straighten them out. Literally. Into a staff. That would fix them 🙂

 

Good morning Ubique,

Yes, have gaiters here and also a “coveralls” like a wading suit. Besides the leather, there’s some other material used. 

Speaking of Moses, one of India’s diety’s had a hooded cobra provide shade from the sun.

The snake is a feature of our Western culture. Yes, we now know the 3 most dangerous predators to our species are the:

–  mosquito

–  fresh water snail

–  other humans.

 

Good morning Bob,

I did some reading on the CDC website this morning on mosquito borne diseases. They carry quite the variety of diseases, most of which have no treatment. Not all lead to severe disease but the risk increases with age.

I wonder why Dengue has gotten worse since the 1960’s?

Regarding Chikungunya virus, the CDC says “there is a risk that the virus will be imported to new areas by infected travelers.”  So, some of these mosquito borne viruses are transmissible between humans after the original infection by the mosquito?

https://www.cdc.gov/chikungunya/

I also read about fresh water snails and schistosomiasis. It is interesting how Senegal is following what Japan did in the 1970’s by reintroducing or facilitating the introduction of the snails main predator, prawns.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-08-13/why-snails-are-one-worlds-deadliest-creatures

This first of a three part series written about human predators/human prey is an excellent article from resilience.org:

https://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-07-30/human-predators-human-prey/

Hood of the cobra. I will be grateful today for umbrellas and sun screen.

 

Good morning Ubique,

Re Dengue Fever, my guess re the increase is more travel and probably more reports getting into the records.

At the Resilience link; even with social classes, roles, etc, without “civilization”, the human species is a predator of other humans.  Without “civilization”, the human species are also cannibals.

I believe Augustine was referring – and camouflaging – this in re his “original sin”. Daniel Dofoe wrote of this subject – also with camouflage – in his book “Robinson Crusoe” written early 1700s. Governor, later Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, lost a son to this type of dining in Iranian Java, Indonesia.

Snails are a problem and solutions, like the other public health matters, cost much money for large area countries.