Creature Classic®: Brood X!

To celebrate cicadageddon 2024, here's one of my favorite past episodes, this one on cicadapocalypse 2021: BROOD X has been waiting 17 years to emerge from the ground. What is Brood X? Should we panic? Discover this and more as we answer the age old question: How is it fair that swarms of baby turtles are considered cute, but swarms of bugs are considered “horrifying?” 

Guest: Mara Wilson

Footnotes:

Cicada

https://live.staticflickr.com/3067/2607912292_150e08400e_z.jpg

 

Cicada tymbal 

https://www.cicadamania.com/images/tymbalanism.gif

 

Cicada sounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNJ6DL_1R9I

 

Holes left by mass cicada emergence (warning for trypophobia)

https://plant-pest-advisory.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/A-e1373044330806.jpg

 

Lots of cicadas!

https://mk0charlottestopdskr.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Cicadas-swarm-north-carolina.jpg

 

Mass sea turtle hatching! 

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/olive-ridley-sea-turtle-swarm-filmed-costa-rica

 

Giant river turtl