you wouldn't need ninja stealth, the damn cicadas are so loud they drown out all other sound!

I used to see a lot of Cicada Killers in the midwest US. They're about that size. Terrified the hell out of me when I was a kid. They're about 2 inches long. I don't think they're very aggressive.

Landshuffler ftw!

would lose to a Cicada though.

So true, coupland. But I couldn't think of another "p" word that was clean. And there simply has never been a "plague of cicadas."

As grspec and firefly can confirm, the 17 year brood reaches end-of-days Biblical plague proportions in about three weeks. And that buzzing shrieking noise! So they will always be locusts to me.

This is a locust: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~vivek/Icons/locust.jpg

This is a Cicada: http://www.bestfoto.com/Galleries/Gallery_008/cicadas.jpg

See the difference? The Locust is a kind of Grasshopper.

Back in 96 or so we had a major outbreak in MO and we happened to be painting our house that summer. Let me tell you the noise almost drove us insane. We couldn't even get the radio loud enough to drown it out and after 2 weeks I wanted to shoot myself to end the noise. It was crazy and the amount of cicada carcasses that were on the ground was amazing.

This plague happened in Maryland about two years ago. It was filthy and marvelous.

I have some great pictures of my (then) 2 yr old daughter playing with the giant LOCUSTS ('cicadas' is a term only used by bug professors, prats, and pedants) and their carcasses.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4820696.html

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/20/america/NA-GEN-US-Cicada-Invasion.php

me?? hmmmm? i like centio-peeds and mantis-type thangys....dragonflyes preserved from the grill of the horse, and cicada hulls for a mobile above the crib...breedin' scarabs and such....or just usin' the ol' magnifiin' monocle to toast the roasty rows....bugs!