So...the hotter weather is upon us and the cicadas are emerging from underground. We get cicadas calling every year here but this year is a particularly noisy one because of the sheer numbers that have emerged. The last time we had such numbers was about 7 years ago so these cicadas have been underground since then as 'nymphs' attached to tree roots feeding on the sap. In America there are cicadas that live underground for up to 17 years and apparently this year there too they are having a busy year as the 13 year and 17 year cicada cycles have emerged at the same time. When they emerge the nymphs climb up out of the ground, usually at night, and metamorphosize in their shells and emerge as a cicada and then fly off onto the trees to find a mate. They only live for up to three weeks after coming out of the ground. The female cicadas scrape a notch in the tree bark and lay their eggs which then hatch and the nymph crawls down the tree to live underground attached to the tree roots for years.