Let me start by saying, I despise bugs. All types of bugs. I have a pretty intense fear of certain ones, but I don’t like any of them at all.
We live in the Midwest, and you may or may not know that we are having an invasion of cicadas this year. We have our yearly cicadas, and the 17-year brood added this year. Apparently these two broods haven’t emerged here together since Thomas Jefferson was president.
When I first heard about this a few months ago, I actually thought it wouldn’t be so bad. Cicadas have never bothered me. I remember seeing their shells on trees and even playing with those as a kid. I remembered the sound they make. I think of it as the song of summer nights. I never really remember seeing them though. Just their shells and hearing their song. So here I am, thinking that this huge emergence of cicadas this year just means the summer song will be louder this year and that doesn’t seem so bad to me.
Keep in mind, Stinky Minks likes to go on his daily walks. When he wants to go for one, he does not let up. He will repeat “go on walk” over and over and over and over until we finally go on one. I enjoy our walks too, so I don’t mind it.
We first started noticing the cicadas in our neighborhood when we walked by this one house that had a tree with a TON of cicadas all over the trunk. I thought it was kinda cool to see. Days later, we start seeing them all over the road, mostly smashed by cars. The ones that were alive on the ground, I would make a point to navigate the stroller around them, so I didn’t smash them. I don’t like that I’m seeing them everywhere, but I figure we should let them have their moment since they’ve been underground for the last 17 years and only get to enjoy life for a few weeks. One of them even landed on Stinky’s leg and I just brushed it off. I didn’t let it bother me.
Fast forward a couple days and they are getting very loud. A lot of people are complaining about how loud they are, but that part still didn’t bother me. I like the sound they make. However, I notice that any time we walk underneath any tree on our walk, there’s a much better chance of one of them falling on us. This, I was not a fan of AT ALL. So, I just decided to avoid going under trees when possible. I would even cross the road to avoid going under a tree. This is a bit of an inconvenience but like I said, I’m letting them have their moment. Plus, it was really cute listening to Stinky “sing” along with the cicadas on the walk.
A couple of days ago, I realize that I have to start avoiding certain streets because those streets are a lot worse than others when it comes to cicada population. Again, I’m flexible and am willing to make a few changes so we can co-exist with these things for a few weeks.
And that brings us to today. Before we go on our walk, I look out the back door and see cicadas flying around EVERYWHERE. Even all over our back yard where there aren’t any trees. This definitely made me nervous, but I’ve managed this far so I will figure this out too. We leave for our walk, and we barely make it past our next-door neighbor’s house when I realize that this is going to be bad. These suckers were dive bombing us left and right. They were flying directly at my face, buzzing by my ears, landing on my shoulder and staring at me with their huge eyes, getting caught in my hair…..it was a nightmare. A living nightmare for me. I decided to walk a little further to see if it got any better and it just seemed to get worse. I’m sure neighbors and people driving by got a laugh out of the crazy lady screaming and swatting away bugs while trying to walk with her husband and child while said husband is laughing hysterically at her. I finally said, “I can’t do this. I’m going back home.” And that’s what I did.
I am no longer trying or willing to co-exist with them anymore. I don’t want them here. I don’t want them to have their moment. I don’t care if they are harmless. They need to go back to whatever dimension of hell they came from because I’m convinced that is exactly where they came from. I have no idea how I’m going to handle Stinky’s walk time tomorrow. Or any day after that. But I am certain that I will not have a repeat of our walk today. This sucks. I am not okay.