What am I?????????????????

[DinaJean]

Finally just finished raining and I could get back in the yard but this guy sent me running back indoors! What the heck is it? He's about the size of a hummingbird!

[Newt]

What a handsome cicada.* :D* They are harmless, just funny looking.* We recently had the 17 year cicadas emerge.* Remember all that humming, especially in the evening?* When I find one that isn't on a tree, I gently move it to a tree so it can mate and go about it's business.*
http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il...ts/cicada.html

Newt

[DinaJean]

Oh, okay, same as a "locust"? *I have only seen them when they have left their "skeleton" behind on a tree. I actually went back out and got to looking at him and they really are cool looking.

I do remember 3 or 4 years ago in MASS, the big deal was the 17 year cicadas emerging. Unfortunately I was not there for it.* Their sound is neat and LOUD, I am hearing it here in SC, but have not listened to news or radio in MONTHS...is that just their normal, or are they in their 17 year emergence here now?

[Newt]

No, locust are related to grasshoppers and are very destructive when they mass.* Sometimes cicadas are called locust, but they aren't locust.* There are annual cicadas and periodical cicadas that emerge after 17 years or after 13 years.* It seems I hear them here in Maryland every year, so we have the annuals, the 13 and the 17 year. This one is probably an annual one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada

Newt