The Biggest One I Have Ever Seen!

  Early this morning found me stalking a Great Golden Digger Wasp.  I had seen the hole next to the front door but could not find my wasp.  I love these wasps!  Yeah, that is a pretty strange thing to say about something that could sting you but these are solitary wasps that are hesitant to sting.  Unless you grab hold to one, it would be extremely rare to be stung.  They just go about their business digging holes, laying eggs and stuffing the hole full of bugs.  That is another reason to love the wasps!  They clear the garden of a lot of caterpillars, stinkbugs and other insects.  Like I said, I was out stalking the wasp but got sidetracked along the way.


  About twenty feet ahead of me, I saw something moving on the ground.  Well, with the old eyes getting weak and a slight, drizzly rain coming down, I was not positive what I was seeing.  I actually thought a mouse was scurrying about the leaves.  Quietly slipping over to where a better view could be had, I came to realize that my "mouse" was not a mouse.  A cicada was struggling to take flight with its newly formed wings.  Ok, so a little help was needed.  The cicada readily climbed up on my extended hand and waited to be lifted high in the air.  My goodness!  That thing was the size of my palm!  It filled the palm of my hand with its beauty!  Never in my life, have I seen one this large!  It was a good three inches in length from the tip of its nose to the ends of its wings.and was such a fat bugger!  I had no idea what type of cicada it is but was told it was called a Giant Oak Cicada.  Maybe?  It was huge!  It is flying free as it took flight and flew to the top of a nearby oak.  It can now live out its life being a happy cicada.

  It was strange that this cicada was found on the ground instead of on the trunk of a tree.  Usually, when the critter digs its way out of the ground, it immediately hunts for some place to hang above ground.  There, it wiggles its way out of its old skin (molts) and hangs to let its wings unfold and dry.  Sometimes, the cicada will climb even higher in the tree to give it a better place to try out those wings.  It is a bit wobbly, at first, but then gains strength and can fly high into the trees just in time to begin singing for a mate.  My cicada never made it up that tree to start or something knocked it to the ground where it was struggling.  It just needed a helping hand...my hand.  Now, I can listen to its music as the sky darkens.