Shhhh...listen...do you hear it?

Central Texas is having a small cricket plague - and they are QUIET crickets. You get one or two chirps the whole night long. I suspect that chirp is when the frog or snake is just about to eat him for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Our crickets are noisier when the humidity rises. Try watering the lawn. As a last resort, there are some environment records with the sounds of crickets and other night critters.

Jiminey Crickets are gone.

reply to post by DancedWithWolves


With monoculture farming, heavy reliance on pesticides/herbicides, and GM crops its a sound that we will all have to get used to...



Peace

I'll tell you what I do hear in the midwest...locusts. If you listen to the farmers, the first frost happens six weeks after you hear the first locust. Which would be the 2nd week in August Usually start hearing them towards the end of summer.

Honestly, since we started having 90 degree days in MARCH, I wouldn't be surprised.

reply to post by tport17


By locusts do you mean grasshoppers or cicadas? I'm guessing you mean cicadas. Either way, if you've seen cicadas or grasshoppers already, that's pretty freaky! . Yes, things are pretty messed up this year. I've seen spring flowers pop up in January and February. I saw a snowstorm in October. And fireflies in May. mother Nature is confused this year for sure.

reply to post by SheeplFlavoredAgain


I mean cicadas..we call them locusts. My husband thought he heard one last week, but a whole group of us heard them during our 4th of July bbq.

Cicadas are out in Central Texas too. They aren't singing though. Found one sleeping on my porch a week ago.

Locusts are out here as well. Haven't seen a grasshopper in ages though.

Crickets as I mentioned earlier, are having an unusal population boom. A "small" plague of them. I remember a worse plague of them in the early 80's. Crickets aren't talking either.

Even the birds aren't singing! I guess they have nothing to sing about.

Originally posted by Trexter Ziam
Cicadas are out in Central Texas too. They aren't singing though. Found one sleeping on my porch a week ago.

Locusts are out here as well. Haven't seen a grasshopper in ages though.

Crickets as I mentioned earlier, are having an unusal population boom. A "small" plague of them. I remember a worse plague of them in the early 80's. Crickets aren't talking either.

Even the birds aren't singing! I guess they have nothing to sing about.

edit on 6/7/2012 by Trexter Ziam because: (no reason given)

i'm in central texas and the cicadas are making LOTS of noise at my house (in the city). i can even hear them now from inside my house with the A/C running. that's how loud they are. i think there are more this year than last year......

Even with the heat here in SC, I hear the cicadas all afternoon long. Very loud sometimes.

At night we may or may not hear a lot a crickets (as I'm outside a lot at night with my telescope, I've noted this):

If it has rained a lot earlier in the day, or has for several days, the crickets and frogs go wild with noise.

If it gets rather dry (several days or more with no rain) they tend to stay pretty quiet. Now if I run the sprinkler quite a bit, they'll be out that night in that area.

So for us is seems to be more about water than heat.

Greetings All,

I am happy to report that yesterday a series of fortunate events happened. First, while I was outside watering flowers, I saw a cricket making its way through the dry grass. The cat, fortunately, did not see or eat the cricket and it went on its merry way.

Second, in the afternoon, a lone cicada started to sing looking for a future love interest.

And thirdly, last night, as I sipped iced tea (long island recipe) on the front porch, the crickets started to SING their sweet summer songs! They're here and that eerie silent night ended. I'm very glad to have been wrong. Good stuff!

reply to post by DancedWithWolves


Glad to hear they're back.

I was up at 2am this morning and they were busy singing away here too.

reply to post by tport17


We call cicadas locusts, too, in Marylanf. But some people also call grasshoppers locusts, too, so it can get confusing! Thanks for answering me.

I am finally hearing cicadas and a little bit of cricket song. The liitle immature cricket my daughter is keeping went through at least one moult but doesn't have his wings yet. With the cicadas it seems they just cropped up at the same time very suddenly. There was nothing and then this weekend seemingly overnight there were lots of them and they are deafening.

I've had the pleasure of watching the nymphs emerge from the ground and shed their potato looking shells and transform into winged adults. It's something I watched a lot as a kid. Sometimes something would go wrong and they would get stuck or fail to fully form and it would be a nasty sight. They would end up badly deformed. They must have had an endocrine disruption.

I live in Central Texas between Waco and Austin. We have lots of crickets and cicadas and both are LOUD! I live in the country and last night they were so loud they kept my husband awake. They are also HUGE! A couple of weeks ago I was on campus registering for classes and it looked like the grasshoppers had taken over the whole campus. They were on the building walls, walkways, in the vents, and inside the buildings. The weather here hasn't seemed to affect them. It's dry and hot. We experienced some really warm temps the last couple of weeks, but cooler this weekend thank heavens.

I was just wondering the same thing right now dead silence at night here in Pa.
This time of year it's either the tree frogs or the insects that are blaring full throttle at night and during the day.
My frogs that we normally have all summer have left our pond no ribbets or songs just vacant silence.
Seems it isn't just us that are experiencing this it's even around the many lakes we are blessed with ...silence.

a reply to: DancedWithWolves


Since this old thread has resurfaced again I wonder if in the last four years anything special has happened in the area of the OP and if not if natures noise has returned?