Cicadas - Simple Fun

The other day the kids found a cicada..."They are kind of a muddy color when they are getting ready to molt" my encyclopedic daughter informed me. I don't know if that's true or not, but usually when she makes such a statement, she is correct.

I hate spiders and insects such as cockroaches - but somehow the cicada doesn't bug me (pun intended). The kids like to collect the "remains" from cicadas that have molted. When my mother-in-law was a child, she would gather cicada "shells" and play with them...pretending they were buffaloes.

Cicada "shell"

Playing with the cicada was short-lived as we needed to go grocery shopping. At first dd put her new friend into a pail, then decided to place him in our little planter on the front steps.

When we returned home from the store the kids rushed over to see if the cicada was still there. Not only was he still there but he was in the process of molting and they got to watch. I was called over.

Here he is almost out of his "shell" - a second later he was out!

It's kind of hard to see the cicada as he's camouflaged with the flower stems - but he is on the far left.

Dd ran and got a plastic container and popped him inside..she was going to keep him - but decided to let him go.