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  1. #1
    Registered User GolfHiker's Avatar
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    Default Cicadas on the AT?

    Just curious about the Cicada invasion we are starting to see as far north as Indiana & Ohio. I’m heading out to Tn./ Va. next week for a few weeks and fully expect to see them on the Trail. Does anyone have current information about this? If they are as plentiful as I’m reading it should make for an interesting hike.
    "How can something this hard be so much fun".

  2. #2
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    There were none on the trail in south-central Virginia last week. I don't know of any outbreaks in the southern Appalachian corridor the trail passes through.

    There were outbreaks last year, in north Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.

    It's now getting too late for periodic cicadas to emerge in the South. The big eruptions down here begin in late April or early May.

  3. #3
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    They supposedly taste like shrimp. Fewer resupply stops. I know they are common in MD. I remember 3 broods ago growing up near DC.

  4. #4

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    This year's brood of cicadas doesn't go far into Virginia. Best bet on the AT looks like Virginia north of Shenandoah National Park. Best bet anywhere is probably Silver Spring, MD, north of the DC Beltway, where we lived in 2004. Videos and pictures from friends living there show similarly insane numbers this year.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/weath...tribution-map/

  5. #5
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    I’ve sadly not been on the AT in a while but can report abundant cicadas in grassy and wooded areas near Washington DC. They aren’t in the concrete jungle but my God, they are everywhere in some of the leafy parts of town and on the local trails. The sound, the dead insects, and the live ones who think nothing of climbing on you if you stop for a while. They don’t bother me that much and they’ll be gone soon. I’ve seen some dogs who apparently think they taste pretty good, to the horror of their owners.

  6. #6

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    We did Harper's Ferry to PenMar, all yesterday. The only three cicadas we saw were at Gathland State Park.

  7. #7

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    I did a short hike in Michaux State Forest today; not on the AT but within 2 miles of Toms Run Shelter. No cicadas spotted.
    --
    EJS
    (Ed. S)

  8. #8
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    I was in Boone, NC for the last few days. I did not see any -

  9. #9

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    Nothing in the Roanoke area that I've seen.

  10. #10
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    We are car camping near Harrisburg PA. Cicadas singing loud & long in these woods.

  11. #11
    Registered User GolfHiker's Avatar
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    I’m heading to Tn. today, hiking NOBO from Hampton on Friday. I’ll either see or won’t see Cicadas on my hike. Thanks to all for their updates.
    "How can something this hard be so much fun".

  12. #12
    Registered User gbolt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GolfHiker View Post
    I’m heading to Tn. today, hiking NOBO from Hampton on Friday. I’ll either see or won’t see Cicadas on my hike. Thanks to all for their updates.
    Enjoy!! Just did part of the Foothills Trail! Beautiful but too Hot ��. You should have great weather! Jealous!
    "gbolt" on the Trail

    I am Third

    We are here to help one another along life's journey. Keep the Faith!

    YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCik...NPHW7vu3vhRBGA

  13. #13
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    Doing Fox Creek to Atkins, VA this weekend...was hoping to hear some.

  14. #14
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    I spent the first half of the day near the Cohutta Wilderness Area in north Georgia. I was surprised to hear pockets of cicadas. The eruption isn't uniform - they don't seem to be anywhere along Emery Creek or the high slope of Little Bald Mountain, but they were lower down and also along some of the roads, like West Cowpen and East Cowpen. Other than these pockets, I don't know of any eruptions in north Georgia or vicinity.

    Regarding the previous post, I doubt hikers will encounter any in the vicinity of Atkins, VA. The eruption occurred last year in that vicinity.

  15. #15
    Registered User GolfHiker's Avatar
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    Just back from a 23 day NOBO, mostly in southern Va. Did not see or hear one single Cicada. Oh well, maybe they’ll be there in 2038! Oh yeah, had a great hike!
    "How can something this hard be so much fun".

  16. #16
    Registered User JNI64's Avatar
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    Glad to hear your hike was successful!!
    I live about 10 miles north west of Harper’s Ferry and they were all up here. Swarms of them all over my windows and mowing my grass they absolutely drove me nuts there's something about the mower noise I was under attack the whole time. My John deere tractor was covered with them. We now have just a few stragglers.
    We now have a bunch of fat overweight birds flying around.

  17. #17
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    They are still around D.C. They are weird insects. They land on balconies and not sure what they're trying to do. They flip over on their back and struggle and struggle and can't get back on their feet. If I help them turn over, they stare at me for a minute, start moving again, and often again end up on their back, and then die.

  18. #18

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    We didn't have any cicadas in my neighborhood, about 15 miles northeast of the point 10 miles northwest of Harpers Ferry. But over the last few weeks, I finally got to see (and hear) them, at Monocacy NRMA in southern Frederick County, MD, where they got horribly loud in the early afternoon, and then saw plenty more along the base of the Thousand Steps along the Standing Stone Trail in central PA, which didn't sound as loud but likely because of competition from road and train noise.

    They were smaller than I remember in 1987 (I was elsewhere in 2004), but then again I was a fair deal younger back then also.
    --
    EJS
    (Ed. S)

  19. #19
    Registered User JNI64's Avatar
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    I was on a section hike 17 years ago in the middle of VA and they were loud and laying dead all over the trail looking up with those big red eyes.

    The cicadas life cycle has 3 stages: eggs, nymphs, adults.
    Female cicadas can lay up to 400 eggs divided among dozens of sites- generally in twigs and branches.
    After 6 to 10 weeks, young cicadas nymphs hatch from their eggs and dig themselves into the ground to suck the liquids of plant roots.

  20. #20
    Registered User JNI64's Avatar
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    They kill alot of young trees because they'll cut the young branches on a 45' angle so they die and drop off.

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