It's a cicada (around here they're also called locusts).

Harmless.

They are harmless tho they defoliate trees. They don't live very long, Glenda, at least in this form.

Thanks, now I know.

I have seen their brown shells when they shed, but never heard one scream or fly around my front porch light.

Glenda, I call those locusts, as Cloecat said. As a very small child, I had one land on the bridge of my nose. It would NOT LET GO! I am 52, and still afraid of them. It left a white mark for years, which is gone now. Mom couldn't get it off of me. I hate them. I am hearing them "singing" in the trees again, as they always do in late summer here. However, I have never heard them scream.

Tami

Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!

That is defintely a Cicada, commonly called a Locust or some ppl call them "17 year Locusts".

They primarily live underground and can cause serious damage to tree roots.

Generally in mid summer they emerge from the ground and as glenda mentioned above, you can often find an empty shell hanging on the lower part of a tree or shrub. The shells are a translucent light brown color and they are the exact same size and shape as the adult insect. When you find a shell you will note that their is a split down the back where the winged adult emerged from the shell.

Immediately after emerging they enter the mating stage and the males emit that loud sound you heard as a mating call, although they have been known to make the sound as a distress call, which no doubt explains why it made that sound when you found it by your light.

The sound produced by the cicada is believed to be the loudest sound produced by any insect, and it has been known to exceed 120decibels, which is loud enough to cause permanent harm to the human ear if they were close enough to your ear when they make the sound.

I would bet that you have often heard the sound but never really knew what produced it. The sound is a very loud, low pitched stacato buzzing noise that is generally coming from high up in a tree. The sound is loud enough that under some circumstances it can be heard up to 1/2 mile away.

There are some cicadas every year, but they have a 13 to 17 year cycle when they emerge in huge numbers.

Not only are they harmless to ppl, in N.China they put them on a bambo skewer and deep fry them as a delicasy...LOL

Yep, I hear them in the woods behind me, but never screaming. But it sure did last nite at ME :o)

Here's U Tube and a screaming locust when cat catches one.

Here is a link that might be useful: screaming locust

When we were kids we used to collect the shells off the pine trees and play with them. Ick!

Just wanted to say in Missouri at an ice cream place they were putting these in icecream and people where gobbling this up. Could not keep up with the demand. Health dept got wind of it and they had to cease selling it...Yuck is right...

The title of this thread had me wondering....why is Glenda writing about the Phillie Phanatic?

Triple yuck.Yeah, cicadas. We get them in Long Island every few years. They live underground, you can see their holes. Zing thru the night. Hate em, and the thought of eating one grosses me out.

Thanks for that video I was wondering what the screm soundedlike. We have them in the trees here in NE Tex they are probably trying t o get a drink of water somewhere.

When I was a kid I was afraid of their sisters (grasshoppers) boys used to throw them at me.

I don't know at anything about cicadas, but I'm terrified of June-bugs. Scared of them as a small kid, and still am.

I'm not sure I have ever seen a cicada but I share your enthusiasm (not) about June Bugs Jasdip. Yuck Yuck Yuck!

Oh yeah, the "exoskeletons" (empty shells) of the cicadas. crunch, crunch, crunch.

Their emergence cycle hit in the N.Va. area a few years ago. Ick. They were everywhere, horribly loud. Big and bad fliers.

But I guess if you had just a couple of weeks to mate, you'd be crazy wild, too.