Say what you will about the ongoing cicada invasion but for kids, it’s been one big science lesson in real life.
Take 12-year-old Lily Hurley for example.
She wants to be outside as much as she can to hold them. They are a fascination. She researched Brood XIX, which has been developing in the ground longer than she’s been alive.
“She is happy to share all about the cicadas with anyone who will listen,” her mother Amy Hurley said.
The brood found in 14 Southern states emerges every 13 years.
The State asked readers to send their photos and stories of the great cicada invasion and the large majority came from parents — and one school administrator — writing about the reaction of children.
Retired Clemson professor and cicada expert Eric Benson said the invasion will probably last another two weeks in the areas where the bugs first emerged about a month ago and up to six in others.
The cycle is: emerge, molt, mate and then the females lay their eggs. The babies go underground for 13 years and the parents die.
An exterminator of 24 years who declined to give his name said he’s never seen anything like it. He has to scrape his house and patio every morning, he said.
Hannah Harmon, a student at Academy Christian School in Rock Hill, was on a field trip earlier this week to Kings Mountain when a cicada joined the group. Most of the others in her class passed on their chance for an up-close-and-personal meeting, but not 10-year-old Hannah.
She went right up to it and she and school administrator Wendy Lipe took a good hard look.
“We love to explore the outdoors with our students. We try to get them acclimated to all of God’s creations … even these pesky cicadas!” Lipe said.
Then there’s 5-year-old Ginny Wright of Lesslie in York County.
She loves to hold them.
She told her mother Alyssa Jannetta, “They are so cute with their red eyes. And their cute wings and squishy bodies. And they don’t bite or sting.” Another perk — “their little feets are ticklish,” she said.
Aniston Rawdon, 9, got to see a cicada come out of its shell at 4H Science Club in York.
“They were finished with class and enjoying a chat with a friend when they both noticed it,” her mother Brittaney Rawdon said. “Needless to say, the class time was extended by 30 minutes.”
Tina Finders was fishing in Leesville last Saturday and cicadas were everywhere.
“So many that they were falling out of the trees and when they landed in the water, the fish would come up and eat them,” she said.
DeAn Blanton of Lancaster said she has never seen so many cicadas in one place. The emergence reminded her of when she was a child in the 1970s.
“It was a treasure to find the shells on the trees,” she said. “We would remove them from the trees and attach them to our shirts.”
Misty Zban said her porch, house and yard in Fort Mill are covered.
“Our backyard sounds like the Twilight Zone,” she said. “I am shocked how many there are!”
Shells, alive, dead, everywhere.
“Hopefully they don’t do too much damage to our plants and flowers,” she said.
Carlee Carter of Rock Hill said she has seen the shells attached to everything, houses, buildings. And the noise. So loud.
Malasia Cousar, a home health aide, said she was alarmed when a red-eyed creature flew over to her and her client as they were enjoying the spring weather. It was staring them down, she said.
“Once I realized it wasn’t a threat we made good friends. HaHaHa,” she said.
Later, she learned it was a cicada.
“I’m happy I finally got to meet the buzz bug,” she said.
While some consider the male cicada song, which attracts mates, frightening to the point of calling 911, Susan Doyle finds the insect’s song delightful.
“Are we having fun,” she said. “I am!”