May 17, 2008
After cicada, firefly's warm glow grows
We cherish the firefly a little more this year. The luminescent insects have always had good timing. They arrive in mid-June to tell us that school is over and summer is here. They bring warm nights and long days. They give license to run through the grass barefoot and jump at the sky. More
Cicada farewell
As the cicada season winds down, we bid farewell not just to Brood X but also to our loyal Buzz correspondents. Many thanks for your sometimes weird, occasionally icky but mostly delightful submissions. We'll end the Cicada Chronicles of 2004 poetically -- and since we hate goodbyes, we'll end with not one but two poems. More
Root, root, root for the cicada team
Overheard after a recent Towson Recreation Association softball game, chanted by the Blue Devils to their opponents, the Tar Heels: More
For cicadas, the party's nearly over
I smell death in the air. More
Insects spark pupils' interest
With the verve of a motivational speaker, 12-year-old Rodrick Johnson stood beside his decorated science board explaining its purpose. But for the seventh-grader with the rapid-fire delivery, the science presentation crossed subject lines to incorporate creative writing, geography and math. More
Capitalizing on cicadas
In a few weeks, the buzz will be over. No more Janis Joplinesque shrieks from the trees of Baltimore. The cicadas will be gone. More
Hear Cicadaville on Buffett radio
Tom Ponton doesn't like being called a parrothead, as fans of Jimmy Buffett are known, because it makes him sound like someone who dresses like a cheeseburger - in paradise, get it? - for the singer's concerts. More
Cicadas' arrival triggers weighty talks with kids
When the periodical cicadas emerged from the ground and began their march across Stoneleigh lawns and paths, Sarah Rhea and her 19-month-old daughter, Ellie, were forced into an early confrontation about life and death. More
The Buzz
A 17-year hiatus remains puzzling
A correspondent writes: More
Medicine & Science
The Fear Factor
Yamile Garcia was helping a friend pack up her Essex apartment last week when she spotted something that made her skin go cold: the blood-red eyes of a 17-year cicada. More
Shins seem to sing of cicadas
It appears that a band from Albuquerque, N.M. - a distinctly cicada-free zone - has unwittingly written the perfect anthem to this buzzy season. The band is the Shins, known for shimmering, melodic pop songs, and the song is "Those to Come" from the album Chutes Too Narrow. More
Cicada song is illegally loud
Huh? You said what about the 17-year cicadas? More
The Buzz
Bugs drop curtain on school play
A correspondent writes: More
Taste
Crunch time: Crisp critters prove hard to swallow
THE KEY TO enjoying cooked cicadas -- if that is possible -- is to eat them with your eyes closed. More
'Cicada cash' rumor squashed
The buzz began last week, when word spread that Johns Hopkins University was paying $100 -- or maybe even $1,000 -- for rare blue-eyed cicadas. More
Cicadas
Send us your cicada photos
Send us your cicada photos and we'll compile them into our new readers' photo blog. More
Md. cicada invasion gets off to quiet start
The season of the cicada has arrived. More
Cicada Q&A
EDITOR'S NOTE: Because of the overwhelming number of inquiries from baltimoresun.com readers, The Sun's Frank Roylance has joined Michael Stroh in answering your questions about cicadas. More
Medicine & Science
Mathematicians explore cicada's mysterious link with primes
It's probably no surprise that periodical cicadas like the clan invading Maryland this month are a big draw for biologists. Less obvious is why someone like Glenn Webb would care. More
And thus, we begin the Cicada Chronicles of 2004
Fear the cicada? Or embrace these winged wonders that appear just once every 17 years? More
Movies to drive you a little buggy
For a little bug that becomes a national obsession every 17 years, the cicada hasn't left much of an impression on America's movie screens. More
Cicada love: a young boy and his bugs
Any day now, hordes of cicadas will emerge from 17 years underground to begin their noisy mating ritual. More
Ick! 'Looks like a bumper crop'
They're gross. They're loud. They're bumbling. More
Here cicada, there cicada, everywhere cicada cicada
YOU PEOPLE who haven't seen these things, you have no idea what you're in for. More
Cicadas on ice: how to prepare
If you don't want to eat your cicadas right off the tree, place your bounty in the freezer, says David George Gordon, a science writer in Port Townsend, Wash., and the author of "The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook." "It's a dignified death; they drift off into a deep sleep and never feel any pain." More
Schools brace for the sounds of spring
Bryn Mawr School officials are taking to heart a warning from a former headmistress about the possible perils of holding graduation outdoors next spring on the wooded, 26-acre North Baltimore campus. More
Medicine & Science
Nature's noisemakers
One summer several years ago, Gaye Williams was walking in a wooded spot near Fort Meade as millions of cicadas whirred and droned in the trees overhead. Then the weirdest thing happened: She was seized with the impulse to flee. More
From Sun archive: 1987
So long, cicada, don't bug us again till 2004
Their song is waning. Their sex drive is dwindling. They're dropping dead one by one. More
From Sun archive: 1987
Cicada Cuisine
Give up cursing those cicadas. Cook them instead. Eating them is the best revenge. More
From Sun archive: 1987
Make mine medium rare
I am a man of simple tastes, and so I prefer my cicadas without fanfare -- lightly sauteed in butter and garlic, then served on a bed of romaine lettuce along with a glass of white wine, a loaf of French bread and a tossed salad. More
From Sun archive: 1987
There is nothing nice to be said about cicadas
Regular visitors to this space may recall a column a few weeks ago in which many charitable things were said about cicadas. More
From Sun archive: 1987
Sex invades the treetops
The "song" of the 17-year cicada has crescendoed to the proportions of a "din," or at least a "racket" in Central Maryland; cats and dogs are snacking on them like potato chips and their discarded shells and rotting bodies are piling up. More
From Sun archive: 1987
'Do they get in the car?
As a public service to readers, we asked Gaye Williams, a scientist at the state agriculture department who specializes in insect studies a few questions about cicadas posed by students at Fallstaff Middle School. More
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