Cicada craziness

Cicadas have hit our property with a vengeance. It amuses me that the Brits among us aren't familiar with these raucous creatures as they don't seem to exist in the motherland. I guess Aussies get used to them and they become part of summer life. Love 'em or hate 'em, there's certainly no avoiding 'em!

It seems that HK ones are particularly noisy. I'm not sure if that's actually the case but they really are deafening! Every night in the stairwell near my office there are a few lying in wait for hapless late night workers navigating their way home wearily at the end of a long day. They seem to delight in sitting silently until just the moment when you are directly adjacent to them and then - omigoodness! Loud noise that is surely enough to pierce the ear drums breaks out. And then if you're particularly unlucky, a second and third one will join in until the pitch is maddeningly loud! I always find it bizarre that the next morning, the cicadas from the previous night seem to be lying round dead!

Last Saturday, I was cleaning a bathroom on our property that is quite large. I was happily working away until suddenly there was a cicada singing and I literally had to put my hands over my ears! I was sure it must have been several of them, but actually I found it was just one, sitting in a porcelain sink in the back corner, reverberating his mating song all through the bathroom. One swift movement and I had liberated him into the open air and peace descended again.

Did you know it's only the males who sing?

They are quite bizarre and amazing creatures!