Washington D.C. was infested with bugs. They had big fat bodies, giant red eyes and legs with grips of steel. At first I thought they were mutant butterflies when flying. They didn’t seem too well suited for life. I saw many laying on their backs unable to turn over (I helped at least one get upright again). I wondered why this species hadn’t yet been killed off by natural selection, or at least why were there so many of the stupid things.

There were exponentially more of them at Six Flags America. The ones there seemed to have even more of a death wish! These bugs kept dive bombing onto people in the park and gripping onto them. They cant be brushed off of clothes easily since their legs have grips of steel. This caused significant injury for the majority of the dive bombing bugs, ‘cause people (understandably) tended to freak out and try to get the bugs off of them by any means necessary. If they landed on the ground, the plethora of middle school seemed to enjoy stomping on them, critically injuring them unfortunate bugs would end up being stomped on by evil kids in school groups. I noticed that many of the stomped bugs did not die immediately, but lived half squashed and broken.

I was informed by a teacher from a school group that they were cicadas, and once I was assured that they would not bite, sting or harm me in any way, I wasn’t bothered by them. We even got to think that this but that seemed totally unfit for survival were kind of cute and special. They ARE special cause they emerge every 17 years, so it seems to me that they should be celebrated rather than murdered. They’re relitavley harmless, except for that theyre so ugly they become cute. Cicadas also make this amazing sound, its similar to a cricket but slightly smoother and subtler. Theres a section of Six Flags America where there are no rides, theres a bridge over water and trees all around; A bunch of them were hanging out there chirping. When a whole bunch of them are chirping it sounds like an other worldly cacophony.

A cicada on Mike's sock.