We asked one of our neighbors who has lived here since the beginning of our neighborhood in 1965 and she didn't recall them at all like this. Looking back for more history on the last time we found this 1996 footage of Pat Battle of WNBC Channel 4 (& Matt Lauer with hair) reporting on the "invasion" in Scotch Plains.
Other areas nearby that had it bad were Mendham, Warren, Watchung, and Westfield. Driving along Rt. 78 at 70mph with both music and AC on you could still hear the drone of the cicadas. We went to an antiques store in Scotch Plains, then drove into Westfield and it was like we hit a wall of accoustic sound droning and drilling sound into the car. Really something to experience.
We picked up this very timely new book from the library "Bug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise" by musician and philosopher David Rothenberg at the height of the experience to really give us some historical and relevant parameters on how we could try to embrace and enjoy what seemed like an outright plague covering our cars and newly painted house.
Here are our photos and videos... enjoy!
Videos below the photos....
 |
| Phoenix or cicada, you decide... |
 |
| Coming out of the shell |
 |
| Every morning the nymphs covered our tires and driveway |
 |
| See video of this below... |
 |
| Cicada holes |
 |
| Cicada holes |
Cicadas sound in the background while filming peonys in the garden.
